A Coffee and a Smoothie
by OneHorseShay
Summary: Starts during the end of 'Who Did it to Trina'. Jade bonds and reflects on her life and romantic relationship with an unexpected person who can surprisingly relate.
1. Chapter 1

A Coffee and a Smoothie

By OneHorseShay

Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. For God sakes, don't sue.

Rating: T to the max for Adult Content and Themes and possible Language

Timeline: Starts just at the end of 'Who Did it to Trina?' and assumes that 'Tori Tortures Teacher' is the following episode.

Summary: Starts during the end of 'Who Did it to Trina?' Jade bonds and reflects on her life and romantic relationship with an unexpected person who can surprisingly relate.

* * *

Chapter 1

Guidance Councilor's Office  
Hollywood Arts High School  
Friday, September 16, 2011

"KEEKO!" André shouted as he threw up his hands then leapt over the couch to dash out the door.

Jade bowed her head and pinched the bridge of her nose as she out an annoyed breath. This afternoon had turned into one big waste more so than she original thought in letting Cat talk her into coming to see Tori's play even with the hilarity of watching Trina swing all about and destroying the entire ranch house set (and watching Tori's play ruined).

The faint noise of knuckles knocking on wood caught the raven haired teenager's attention away from her self reflecting on her regret of wasting her afternoon to look up with the rest of the Hollywood Arts students to see the smiling and handsome face of Freddie Benson looking around the edge of the half opened door. He rested his left hand on the door handle of the office door while softly knocking on the wood door with his other hand as he greeted them, "Hey."

The rest of the students turned to look at the Seattleite visitor with various expressions of being pleasantly surprised by his presence. Jade felt a twinge of disgust in her stomach at how Tori instantly turned on her flirtatious charm (at least she didn't do her flirtatious hair flipping) as the brunette walked past Lane and greeted their guest with a warm smile and overly cheerful tone, "Hey, I was wondering where you took off to."

The brown eyed teenager finished entering the room and shrugged his shoulder while giving the brunette a boyish grin, "I was with Trina. I just wanted to make sure she was doing okay and that she knew someone was there with her. She seemed like she was going to be fine when I left, but she's going to be sore for the next few days… and I think cranky."

Jade held back a smirk as Tori threw her head back and sighed loudly at the prospect of having to deal with a cranky sister over the weekend. The pale actress imagined for a moment that Trina would put her rival through the same misery as she did when Tori was the older Vega sister indentured servant before the Ke$ha performance to get her out of the deal.

The raven haired girl was pulled out of her forming fantasy of a miserable Tori with Freddie motioning around with a hand towards them while asking curiously, "So why are all of you here instead of with Trina?"

Lane looked as if he was caught off guard for a split second, but recovered enough to answer while holding up the golden colored gimbal, "The gimbal attached to Trina's harness looked like it was cut—"

Rex spoke up with more than appropriate cheer in his voice, "And Lane was accusing one of us of sabotaging Trina's harness, but it was just some old equipment that broke from her weight."

Freddie smirked as he looked over to Lane and commented with a little bit of prodding in his voice, "I guess Lane really is pretty good at jumping to conclusions."

The guidance counselor crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at the teenager.

The iCarly tech-producer cracked a bigger smile as he met the school employee's annoyed stare.

Jade was curious as the rest about what the Seattleite meant by the statement, but instead of asking for him to clarify, she asked with a smirk as she got up from the wicker chair, "What made you finally decide to ditch Trina and come back?"

Freddie turned his attention to the pale singer while still wearing his friendly smile, "Well…" He scratched the back of his head and let out a soft laugh, "She kept flirting with me… _really_ flirting with me… now I know what it felt like on the other side when I was thirteen."

Jade saw Tori raise a curious eyebrow and mouthed a half formed question in her mind, but Freddie pulled the hand away from the back of his head and raised it to wave her off and interrupt, "Never mind." Jade slipped in before Tori could make any response with a shrugged a shoulder and casually remarked, "Figures she would try something like that."

The visitor raised an eyebrow as he looked back on her with a curious expression.

She smirked at their Seattle visitor with a narrow gaze and answered coyly, "Freddie, you're a pretty handsome, smart, nice guy… and famous." She finished with a soft, somewhat sarcastic laugh, "I'm surprised she didn't just jump on you."

He bowed his head down slightly smiled at the compliment and softly answered, "Thanks…" He let out a soft laugh as he finished, "I think the painkillers they gave her saved me from that fate as she was getting pretty groggy as I left."

Jade passed the quickest of glances towards Tori and maintained her smile as seeing Tori giving her the briefest of pouts, before the brunette quickly recovered with a soft smile towards her guest and resting a hand on his upper left arm. She spoke with an apologetic tone with that puppy dog look expression that Jade couldn't stand, "Sorry about that. Trina can be—"

Jade instantly supplied with a hint of laughter in her voice, "Annoying? Irritating? Nauseating?"

Tori dropped her hand away from Freddie's arm and frowned as she gave Jade a cold stare.

The pale actress smirked in response and mentally checked off another point in her head against the brunette.

Freddie clasped his hands together getting everyone's attention and stating with a nervous tone, "Anyway, so… are we ready to head out? The after play celebration might be canceled, but I doubt you want to hang around here anymore."

The brunette snorted out a quick breath to apparently release her irritation at the raven girl turned back to Freddie. She answered with an easy going voice, "Yeah, we can go ahead and go." She looked to Lane and asked playfully, "Unless Lane has anything else?"

He raised his hands and awkwardly smiled, "No, no… I don't have anything else. Go, go have a good weekend."

Freddie motioned with his right arm towards the direction of the exit and allowed Tori, Robbie and a happy Cat to pass by him. Tori called out just as she exited the office, "See ya Lane." He remained standing at the door and turned his attention to look at Jade and politely asked, "You coming?"

She wrapped her arms around herself and looked inquisitively at the brown haired boy as she remained standing in place. "No, Beck's picking me up."

Tori had stopped just at the threshold past the door and gave an accepting nod, but Freddie spoke up, "Oh… I could stay and wait with you?"

Jade couldn't hide her slight surprise at his suggestion and it apparently didn't faze him as he looked over his shoulder to Tori and stated casually, "Robbie can drive and Beck will just drop me off after he picks us up."

Jade didn't have a chance to contemplate an answer before her mouth simply spoke, "That's fine." Her eyes shot open wide at hearing her own words. It wasn't as if she was adverse to spending time with the Seattle native, but surprised that he would offer and she would readily agree.

Tori looked even more surprised and stumbled over her words before she was finally able to spit out, "Okay, I'll see you in a little while. We're having dinner at seven."

Jade noticed the playful grin he gave to Tori as he responded, "Looking forward to your mom's cooking."

Tori smiled back to him then turned and started on her way down the hallway. Cat walked back into the room and took a moment to give a quick hug to Freddie, which he happily returned, then let him go to catch up with Tori and Robbie. He let out a soft laugh then looked to Jade once they were out of sight. He motioned again to the door and politely spoke, "After you."

She nodded to him then walked around the wood table dominating the center of the gathered seat to pass him and exit the room. She heard over her shoulder Freddie bidding farewell to the guidance counselor and pulling the door shut behind him.

The pair started their way down the hallway, but Jade wore a regretful expression as she glanced to her right at the oblivious teenager who he thought he was helping out. Once they were several feet down the hallway, she gently grabbed him by the elbow and brought him to a stop. He turned to her with a raised eyebrow for an explanation. She blew out a breath and rolled her eyes while crossing her arms under her chest. "Look, I lied. Beck's not picking me. I drove to school today."

His eyes darted back and forth for a few moments with his lips becoming a thin line then he cautiously asked, "Okay? Why not just tell us that?"

She frowned and eyed him which he instantly got the message that he really shouldn't ask her that question. She let out a soft sigh and let her shoulders drop. She met his eyes with a half smile and regretfully stated, "I'll just go ahead and drop you off at Tori's—"

He interrupted with a lighthearted voice, "Or we could go get a smoothie?"

Jade straightened her posture and raised her pierced eyebrow.

He cracked a halfhearted smile and continued with a bit of tribulation, "Or whatever you want. You obviously didn't want them to know that and dropping me off right away would give it away so… we have to kill some time and… I'm an ear if you want it?"

She tilted her head to the side slightly as she looked to the handsome tech-producer and contemplated his suggestion. He cracked a playful smile strangely similar to one that Beck would flash her way and hated to admit could get her to do almost anything. She nodded along a few moments later and asked in a tone that suggested that she was doing him the favor, "Coffee?"

He snorted out a laugh and answered, "Coffee is good."

Jet Brew Coffee Shop  
7055 Sunset Blvd.  
Los Angeles, CA

Jade sat comfortably in the stool chair as she sat across from the Seattle visitor at one of the high tables near the large front window of establishment. She held the Styrofoam cup in both her hands and sipped from the rim of her fancy coffee that she decided to try on a whim and Freddie had insisted on treating her. She looked across the table to see Freddie sip on his straw of his rich (and overly priced) smoothie he wanted to try.

She sat the coffee down off to the side and leaned forward resting her crossed arms on the table to support her as she asked, "It's a surprise to see you just showing up in the audience."

He sat his cup down and took a soft breath as he looked up to meet her eyes. "A pleasant one I hope?"

She softly smirked with an approving eye as she answered, "Yes it is. Better circumstances this time, but what made you decide to come down?"

He gave an agreeing nod, but she noticed that he avoided her gaze by focusing his attention on the table as he answered with a casual sounding voice to her ears, "I saw Tori's post about her play and I thought it might be fun to come down to see it and hang for a bit, so I contacted Tori and she offered me to stay at her house for the weekend. I guess it was the excuse I needed to get away from it all for a little while."

She nodded along accepting the answer. "I guess we all just need a change in scenery at some point."

He glanced up to her for the briefest of moments then looked away while he answered, "Something like that." She furled her brow as she saw that a soft blush was forming on his cheeks while he continued to look down at the table and take the occasional sip from his smoothie.

A few moments passed before it occurred to her that leaning forward and resting against her arms, she was giving him a good view of her cleavage, especially as she had the top button undone on her dark gray scoop neck shirt and he was fumbling to look anywhere else but her. She actually felt a flush of warmth on her pale cheeks warm and felt a twinge of flattery for his bashfulness.

She cleared her throat and sat back up to let the backrest support her then casually tried to sip on her coffee.

He looked up and met her eyes. He apparently saw through her attempt to remain casual as he looked away and mumbled out, "Sorry… I didn't mean—"

She cracked a smile as she forced her voice to remain casual, "No, I didn't realize the ah… view I was giving you. Most guys would have tried to look every chance he could get away with as we were talking as if I was a piece of meat."

He looked straight into her eyes and responded with a clipped tone, "My eyes were up."

She leaned slightly back in her seat with evident surprise to the sharpness of his tone.

He blew out a breath and shook his head. He looked up to her eyes with a regretful expression and tone, "I'm sorry, it just… the circumstances just remind me of something Carly accused me of doing one time despite the fact I was looking her straight in the eyes at the time." He brought his straw back to his lips and sip on his smoothie in an apparent attempt to comfort himself.

The pale actress tapped her fingers on the metal table and causally commented, "An ear?"

He grinned then let out a relieving laugh which brought a surprise smile to her face. "It was a few years ago when Carly did a charity fight with Shelby Marx—"

"The professional fighter that Tori looks like?"

He gave her a polite point as he answered, "Yeah, that's her… anyway when Carly first 'challenged' her, someone commented on the site that she looked like a pole or something like that, I don't remember the exact phrase that was used. She was outraged and said that she was getting curvier everyday. I agreed with her that I had noticed that she was getting curvier to reassure her, but she suddenly acted offended that I was agreeing with her and told me 'eyes up' when I was doing that in first place. She even gave me grief for thinking Tori is pretty when she was dating Steven."

He leaned back in his stool and glanced out of the window as he finished, "I hate to say it, but sometimes Carly says the stupidest things as if they are the Gospel truth and she expects everyone to agree with what she says. What's worst is I think _she_ believes what she's saying it true."

The idea that Freddie had fallen under Tori's spell like every other guy (and Beck a part of her always feared) bothered her a bit, but she focused on the part of her his statement which brought out a soft laugh, but immediately ceased when she saw his slight frown directed at her. "Sorry, I just… I find it kind of funny that you're getting grief for agreeing with the girl. It's usually the other way around."

His frown was replaced with a small smile. He spoke with a relieved voice, "I don't get it; maybe you can explain it to me?" He softly shook his head with a grin as he continued, "Girls want to feel pretty and beautiful and you want to be told that, but when a guy actually says that there's something wrong with us?" He glanced up to the ceiling for a moment as he looked to her that he was coming to some kind of realization. He focused back on her and asked, "You know what?" He leaned forward to look her dead in the eyes to help make his point, "I'm single. I'm allowed to have an opinion on the girls around me without having to feel guilty about it or being made out to be some pervert. Tori is pretty. Trina is pretty. Cat is pretty."

She narrowed her gaze on him and whispered out cautiously, "What about me?" Maybe it was due to a little pride on her part, but she didn't like the fact that he could say that he thought the rest were pretty, especially Tori, yet he didn't include her.

He sat up and paused for a moment which caused her to immediately frown and turn her cautious gaze into a harsh glare. He looked caught for a moment as if he wanted to say something, but the tiniest inkling in the back of her head told her that it wasn't due to him being fearful from her reaction yet she couldn't really pinpoint what was his true motivation for not speaking.

He took a soft breath then whispered to her in such a way that she felt he was gently caressing her, "You are beautiful."

Jade's eyes opened wide as he looked to her bashfully as maybe he was crossing some line. She cleared her throat then tried to ask with a nonchalant voice, "If you really believe what you just told me, why were you so hesitant to say it?"

He let out a chuckle which only caused the actress to become irritated, "Because you have a boyfriend; it becomes a little more complicated to compliment another guy's girl without someone jumping to some kind of conclusion. I know from personal experience for the time Gibby wanted to beat me up over me supposedly trying to get with his ex-girlfriend when all we did was literally trip over ourselves because of the loosing fitted clothing of the hobo costumes we were wearing for a party Carly had thrown."

He smirked and shook his head. "The most ridiculous part about the whole thing is that he gets so wazzed off at me for thinking I was going behind his back but then turned around and cheats her on later with the girl he knew _I_ was getting a date with as if it wasn't any big deal." He looked back to meet her eyes with a hopeful tone, "I'd like to avoid a fist fight with Beck… I wouldn't want to have to hurt him."

Jade remained quiet from hearing a bit of insider information on the inner workings of the iCarly crew and maybe the inner workings of the handsome tech-producer sitting across from her. A part of her felt a little amused at the idea that Freddie could hurt and win a fight with Beck, but a quick glance at his arms even underneath his rolled up sleeves and plaid patterned buttoned shirt with vest failing to hide his muscular chest told her that his statement wasn't some pie in the sky boast. She suddenly remembered that he had survived being hit by a truck one time attesting to his ability to take a hit. However, another part felt a little troubled that she found it hard to imagine Beck actually showing that level of jealousness or possessiveness of her then realized that she couldn't remember a time where he had actually shown _any_ level of jealousy when it came to her.

She looked down at the table and could feel a sense of… inadequacy. She glanced over and saw from the corner of her eye and saw several teenage girls, and maybe one in her early twenties, looking in their direction, but specifically at Freddie. It may have been that they had recognized him from the web-show, but she turned her head slightly to get a look at their eyes and instantly saw that they were eying Freddie just as they would Beck when she was with him.

Her anger flared up into her chest that regardless whatever guy was in her presence, others would tune her out as if she wasn't there and zero in on him. She looked back to Freddie in the eyes and placed her right elbow on the table to support her hand resting delicately against her pale neck above her necklace. She spoke softly, "Well he's not here."

She heard the caution in his voice and the hesitation in looking in her eyes as he responded, "I can see that… where is he?"

The raven haired teenager looked away from his soft eyes and down at her PearPhone sitting on the silver table next to her resting coffee. She whispered so softly that she wondered if she had only said the words in her mind or out loud, "I don't know."

She really didn't know where Beck was at the moment. They had just started giving each other the silent treatment in class and instead started trading text messages to one another to communicate, but it was quickly deteriorating into outright arguing. She guessed by next week they would be openly fighting in class and maybe with their phones. She wasn't even sure what they were starting to argue about this time. However, she was sure about one thing: that as always, he wouldn't listen to what she had to say.

She glanced back up at Freddie and it didn't escape her notice that he took a hesitant breath and looked to her with a sympathetic expression. Usually that would just annoy her to no end, but this time it didn't as he wasn't paying attention to the girls a few tables over gawking at him, but straight at her… as if she really was his center of attention and not because he was perving over her.

The singer wondered, she wondered… then a thought occurred to her as an overwhelming sense of curiosity came over her as she had to know. "I heard that Sam dumped you…" She took a quick, soft breath and finished with a cautious tone, "I'm sorry to hear about that."

Freddie's mouth dropped open as he was caught off guard from the sudden change in subject.

She regretted in an instant that she had brought it up as he leaned forward and rested his forearms on the table and slightly frowned. The dark haired teenager broke eye contact as she could easily see from his eyes that the subject matter of him and Sam being a couple looked liked it left an unpleasant taste in his mouth. He blew a loud breath through his lips then answered, "It's okay. For the record, she didn't dump me… Sam overheard something Carly said about Spencer and the girl he was seeing at the time and felt like it applied to us. She expressed her doubts about whether we should be together at all and I took the opportunity to bail out of the relationship I should have done by the end of the second week if it wasn't for Carly. I got her to admit that the break up was mutual to try to spare her feelings… heck, I even claimed equal responsibility over the years of us going at each others throats when it's actually her tormenting me every chance she gets to make my life miserable… which she does succeed at quite well. I think it was my way of making it up to her and myself for sinking down to her level in the relationship."

His description of what happened was eye opening and one particular thing jumped out at her other than him saying that Sam made him miserable, "Her level?"

He looked down to break his eye contact with her as he finished, "I'm _not_ proud to say that I finally started treating her the same way she treated me… I was just as vicious back to her… except I never punched her back when she hit me whenever I disagreed with her… which was quite a lot over those three weeks, but she's hit me for years." He shook his head as he whispered out regrettably, "You don't know how much the relationship brought out the worst in me. I don't want to be that person again."

Jade held her breath as she saw the glimmer of real shame in her eyes. She felt an overwhelming sense that she should say something, anything, but he continued, "To top it off, I don't know if I'm the good guy for giving her a fair chance at trying to change her ways with me and to see if there could be something there at the time that plenty of girls wouldn't give me or a pathetic loser for saying yes because I wanted to hookup with a pretty girl that liked making out with me… the only thing I do know is that I haven't been able to look myself in the mirror in a long time." He growled out in frustration then turned back to sip on his smoothie.

The pale raven haired girl looked to with an apprehensive expression from the sheer honesty and candor of his words and caused her to once again make a comparison with her relationship with Beck. It wasn't exactly on point, but it was close enough for her to think on the fact that she had always taken the blame for the problems in their relationship, yet the young man sitting across from her in all honesty knew very little about was willing to admit his own mistakes and failures when he could have easily hid behind the fact he had been in what could be generously described _at best_ as an unhealthy relationship. She wondered why Beck couldn't do the same when their relationship wasn't anywhere near as troublesome.

She gently rested her hand on top of his resting on the table. He looked up at her with a guarded expression, but she looked him straight in the eyes and gave him the faintest of smiles. She whispered softly in a comforting tone, "I see a good guy."

He wore an even expression as he looked to her and assessed her statement. He gave her a penetrating stare and she for a few moments felt a little exposed.

She pulled her hand away then quickly licked her lips and asked, "Okay… I can somewhat understand at least giving it a try to see if it could work out and calling it quits when it obviously isn't working, but how does Carly fit into everything?"

He gave a half smile as he elaborated, "I _let_ Carly browbeat me into staying with Sam after I found out that she sabotaged my application to go to a workshop camp that would have gotten me into any college I wanted with listing that on my transcript." He frowned as he delved deeper into his story, "Heck Carly knew what Sam had done weeks before and kept her secret. Carly tried to use it to break us up because she got all mad that we were spending time with each other and neglecting the show. She slipped it to my mom and immediately after my mom told me about it and I was still just trying to wrap my head around what had happened, Carly demanded that I forgive Sam on the spot with the idea that I just have to accept the way Sam treats me, because supposedly Sam ruins things for her and she has to put up with it. She thought Sam was sincere with her lame apology that she gave after she first tried to brush it off as if it wasn't a big deal because she did it before she started liking me and we got together. Carly had the nerve to ask 'Who cares?' that Sam janked me over."

He snorted out a breath and shook his head. "Funny, I can't remember anything Sam has done to Carly that's on the scale of ruining college plans… that's right, Carly _doesn't_ put up with it."

Freddie took several deep breaths as dragging up the memories was obviously causing some suppressed anger to rise up and the raven haired teenager actually grew concerned for a moment for his wellbeing.

Jade was initially floored with the story and had a hard time in believing it, but her mind recalled the time that Tori had briefly ruined Beck's chances on his movie spot in a film with Melinda Murray. She had been absolutely furious over the matter and didn't shy away one bit to be snarky and short with her rival over the matter. Beck had attempted the same thing of trying to let her anger go with Tori overnight as apparently Carly had succeeded with Freddie, however she would have none of that. She could not magically flip a switch in her head and heart to forgive a girl that at the time cost her boyfriend his first spot in a theatrical release movie. She wasn't going to give credit to the actress for fixing a screw up that should have never had happened in the first place.

The pale actress never voiced it to Beck, but it did annoy her that he didn't appreciate her being upset for him while he kept his cool and collective image up. She realized as she went further down that train of thought that he had never shown any real signs of being upset for her when she lost out on things. Just like today, he was mysterious absent when Tori got Steamboat Suzie over her, so he got to avoid actually having to actually take her side over Tori's side. He was conveniently in Canada when her live performance art 'Clowns Don't Bounce' was pushed aside for Tori's 'Prome' despite already having booked the Asphalt Café in advance, so he avoided having to take a position a second time. She figured that maybe she should say something to him about it, but she had a feeling that he'd brush her off as always. Also, as much as she like Sikowitz, his blatant favoritism of Tori over her was starting to really get on her nerves.

She finally pulled herself from her thoughts and focused back on the brown eyed teenager sitting across from her. He looked like he was fuming at that point and sipping on his drink to help calm his nerves. She responded the same way she did when André lost his chance at a record contract, attempt to comfort the teenager, "Freddie, you're a smart guy. There's got to be something else that can make up for missing out on it. All the technical work you do on iCarly has to count for something?"

He nodded along for a moment then looked to her with an irritated expression as he answered, "You'd think that wouldn't, but you'd be surprise how that's not the case. About a month ago, we were having an exposé done for the show and the one producing it refused to interview me. She didn't think I wasn't important to the show other than a 'camera monkey' for the show."

He leaned back in his chair and smirked, but it wasn't a humorous one as he continued his story, "Instead of Carly and Sam supporting me and simply refusing to do the interviews unless I was with them, they agreed to still do them… they even interviewed Gibby and thought he was more important than me to the show. I named the damn show and I'm treated this way over frankly a 'Johnny-come-lately' that wormed his way into _our_ show."

The actress felt as if the bottom of her stomach fell out as she realized he had it worst than she did in wanting some decent friends she could count on as she had told one of the tots she interviewed for her Slap page and worst than not being acknowledge for one's talents, but actually being told and considered nonessential to the show. She thought about Sinjin and his crew of weird and borderline disgusting perverts that she didn't like, but even she didn't question their talent and importance in making a production successful when they were onboard. Sinjin really was good at set design and that's why she trusted him to work on her 'Well Wishes' production.

She finally gathered her thoughts to ask, "What did you do about it?"

"I wanted to prove that I was important to the show, so I wanted to star in something, but they dumped the whole thing on me to come up with something without any help or input. I came up with something and I bombed badly… I can't say for certain, but a part of me thinks they wanted me to fail…"

"Is that normal though?"

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow.

She shrugged a shoulder as she asked, "I mean just coming up with your own sketches? I just don't know how you handle the production of the show."

"It's not… the show is actually a collaborative brainstorming process in the writing and I contribute whether they will admit it or not. We don't really do individual things at the spare of the moment and on the rare occasion that Gibby wants to do something, Carly has to approve of it before it goes on the air and helps polish the idea anyway. She's very particular about what goes on the show and hates having to wing anything."

He took a quick sip to wet his mouth then continued, "I really think that's why it bombed… I didn't have anyone there to help me polish it. It's not the acting part. I've acted in several reoccurring bits we have for the show and more or less have creative control on those parts. I do other short videos we put up online between shows. I can act and not to sound arrogant about it, I probably have more practical experience in acting then most of the people that go to Hollywood Arts…" He put on an awkward smile as he was obviously hesitant to say his next words, "Including you."

She slightly frowned, but before she really could take any offense, he pointed out the blindly obvious truth, "I may not perform in every show, but we do nearly fifty shows a year and we just celebrated our forth year doing the show this month, so you can do the math."

She glanced down at the table and softly laughed embarrassingly, "Oh… you got me there."

He gave her a quick sympathetic smile then continued, "Anyway… then I tried to show off my technical skills for the show by getting a camera I've been working on off and on for a while. It would film then project in three-D without glasses or three-D ready monitor."

Jade sat up straighter from being impressed with his ambition for such a thing. She considered herself a real actress inspiring to be a professional one after graduating, so she couldn't ignore how the three-D craze had effected how movies were produced. She asked genuinely curious, "Did it work?"

He slightly frowned then took another sip of his smoothie before answering, "Yes and no. I could get it to do that, but it made everyone's eyes screwy when they watched it. I did cure a few rare cases of eye problems, but other than that, I tried and I failed… as always."

She slightly frowned for a moment at seeing him being down in the dumps. She blew out a soft breath through her nose and stated in a tone as if she was saying the sky was blue, "Okay, so you failed." She leaned forward again and disregarded the fact that she was flashing him a nice view of his cleavage as he was looking her straight in the eyes as she spoke, "So, try again. How many things around here do we take for granted worked the first time?" She held up her PearPhone to help illustrate her point. "How many PearPhones have they've been through to get us to this? Heck, try and sell your idea to the Pear Company. Maybe with all their brainy guys they can figure out how to make it work and you get a nice royalty check out of it?"

Freddie blinked several times as she saw the preverbal gears turning in his head. He finally answered with a relieved tone, "That's… that's a _really good idea_. Thank you."

She smiled warmly from the praise as it had been awhile since someone had given her any praise while lying her phone back down on the table. He returned it with one of his own that reached his eyes.

A momentary sense of peace seemed to fall on the pair as they started back on their respective drinks. The raven haired teenager realized that her coffee had cooled more than she wanted, but she wasn't going to complain as it really hadn't bothered her.

Freddie broke the comfortable silence about a minute later with a soft whisper, "I'm sorry for dumping all that on you… I wanted to be an ear for you, not the other way around."

She looked up to see his apologetic eyes. "It's okay… I guess I needed to do some listening. It just… gave me a few things to think about on my own relationship." She quickly closed her mouth as she realized that she may have said something that she didn't want to share.

The brown eyed teenager asked with self-deprecating humor in his voice, "Trying to learn from my screw ups?"

She let out a relieved breath as she answered, "Something like that."

He smirked as his eyes told her that he had picked up turning his earlier comment back on him, "Glad I could help then."

She grinned warmly at him, but was interrupted with the ping from her phone. She closed her eyes and shook her head then looked down at her pear shaped phone. She quickly read through the text message from Beck and clenched her jaw tight.

"Is everything okay?"

She looked up to see his concerned face, but frowned deeply as she stared harshly at the brown eyed teenager.

He raised his hands up in surrender and commented, "Sorry."

She tilted her head to the side slightly as she whispered, "No, it's…" Giggles from her right caught her attention and interrupted her train of thought. She glanced over to see where they were coming from and saw the same girls once again eyeing Freddie with almost embarrassing looks of lust in their eyes.

As she looked back to the web tech-producer, she caught sight that Freddie had seen the girls. He looked to her with an embarrassed smile and stated, "If you'll excuse me for a moment, I have to make a run for the restroom. I think the smoothie is already catching up with me and it would give you a moment of privacy to take care of…" He trailed off as he motioned a hand to her phone.

The singer glared at the teenagers at the other table. They quickly lost the smiles and smirks off their faces. She looked back to the table and particularly her phone as she took several deep breaths. She glanced in the direction of the obscured view of the restrooms then back to her phone. She tapped the screen to read over a sarcastic response from Beck. She clenched her jaw tightly and let her line of thought started leading her down a path that she knew that she may regret, but…

She picked up her phone off the table and locked it then slipped it into her left boot as she stood up from the table. She casually made her way to the restroom which was at the back of the establishment. She rounded the corner to a small hallway created by a partition wall made to keep the doors themselves out of view from the rest of the establishment. Instead of heading into the ladies' restroom, she stopped in front of the men's restroom.

The pale raven haired teenager glanced over to see that no one was watching from behind the corner then pushed open the door and peaked inside to see if anyone else was in the restroom. She didn't see anyone initially, so she quietly slipped inside then quickly knelt down resting on her heels to see the bottom of the stalls in order to double check anyone else being in the restroom. Fortunately, she only saw Freddie's lower legs and sneakers as he was in the process of exiting the stall.

She turned slightly to her left for her right hand to lock the door over her shoulder. She watched as he was unaware to her presence while he finished washing and rinsing his hands then grabbed a few paper towels to quickly dry his hands. She also noticed that he avoided looking into the mirror at his reflection. He turned as he finished drying his hands and balling the towels up to drop in the receptacle by the sink. He stopped in mid-step and put on a confused expression. "Ah, Jade?"

Jade took a deep breath and took two quick strides to close the distance between them. She grabbed him by the cheeks and pulled his face to her as she crashed her lips onto his lips. She closed her eyes and savored his lips so she didn't see his reaction, but felt his sudden tension by the unexpected contact. She slightly parted her lips and if possible, deepened the kiss as her right hand slipped to the back of his head and slid her fingers through his short hair to allow her nails to playfully dig into his skin.

She finally felt him start to return the kiss and his hands rest on her hips. She started grinning into her kisses as she realized that he was quite skilled in returning the affection with the various pressures against her lips and alternating attention to different parts of her lips.

He pulled his lips away and started trailing kisses down her left jaw line until he reached the spot just under her left ear. She closed her eyes as her fingertips brushed down his cheek then fisted his loose collar while she softly bit her bottom lip to muffle the lustful mew escaping her throat as he continued kissing the spot under her ear several times. He kissed the end of her ear then gently kissed his way down and kissed her pulse point on her neck.

The brown eyed teenager pulled his lips away before he could leave any mark on her pale skin and recaptured her lips without any objections on her part. She felt the tip of his tongue cautiously brush her bottom lip and immediately parted her lips so they could deepen the kiss further. As she enjoyed Freddie's kissing skills that a part of her mind attributed to him honing from his time with Sam (and with Carly that she wasn't really aware of), she felt his left hand slip off her hip and palm the small of her back then pulled her tighter against him.

His other hand brushed down from her hip then a pleasant tingling sensation travel up her left leg as Freddie, with a delicate touch from his right hand, ran his fingertips and palm over her stocking cover thigh. She slightly bit his bottom lip in surprise when his hands reached the end of the back of her thighs and slipped under her loose skirt and gripped her bottom.

His left hand soon brushed down from the small of her back and over her skirt then slipped underneath to join his other hand and cup her bottom. They maintained their kissing as he turned to his left and easily lifted the pale actress off of her feet while she instinctively wrapped her legs around his waist and arms around the back of his neck and over his shoulder blades. A moment later, he gently sat her on the countertop of the row of sinks.

As the continued to duel with their lips and sometimes tongues, the Seattleite pulled his hands from underneath her bottom and ran his hands up her sides with the side of his thumbs gently grazing the side of her breasts over the soft material of her shirt. He slid his hands back down to rest back on her hips and started massaging her sides with his thumbs. His touch was a comforting sensation down her lower back for a few moments until he ceased and pulled the hem of her shirt from out of the waistband of her skirt. She shivered as he slid his right hand underneath her dark grey shirt to run his palm across her abdomen and softly brushed across her pale skin to hold her side. It was a strange, but pleasant sensation that went up her spine and down to her lower region from his cool thumb ring gliding across her skin.

She mewed with disappointment as his lips pulled away from her lips for a moment, but let herself enjoy his gentle touch yet underlining sense of strength of his hands that his hands brought on with added sense of security of his right hand sliding further around and rest on the small of her back. She realized a few moments later as to why he had pulled back slightly, so he could plant a soft kiss on her nose over her nose-stud then up to plant a soft one on her forehead then over to kiss over her eyebrow ring.

He started down the left side of her neck again and kissed over her collarbone, down the skin of her upper chest that the exposed from the scoop cut of her shirt until he left a gentle kiss at the top of her cleavage. She tilted her head up to look at the ceiling if her eyes were opened grinned as she found out that he had some appreciation for it. She ran her fingers through his short hair as a sign of her approval and wrapping her left forearm behind his neck along with her breath catching in her throat.

He kissed back up to place butterfly kisses over her right collarbone as his right hand continued to massage her left side and his left hand moved back under her skirt again then gently grabbed her bottom to pull her even closer as to leave no separation between the pair.

She instinctively used her legs to keep him close and pressed against her and as she was hardwired like every other human, started grinding against him as their centers had lined up with him standing and her sitting on the counter. She closed her eyes and softly biting her lower lip as her breaths started becoming shorter. She softly growled out as a jolt went through her from the pleasant friction caused by the rough material of his jeans against her stockings and panties. She started whispering into his ear, "Freddie, Freddie… Freddie—"

She could feel him smile against her neck figuring that he was quite pleased with his efforts to extract those words through his lips.

He pulled her away from her collarbone and recaptured her lips to silence her and she was glad to redirect her energy to his lips.

A knocking came from the restroom door then a muffled voice asked from the other side of the door, "Who locked this door?"

The pair's respective eyes shot open and Freddie immediately pulled away from his kiss and looked to the locked door. He whispered out, "Ah oh…"

She mentally had the same reaction, but she was a little quicker to come up with a solution. She grabbed his cheek and forced him to look at her. "Oh, don't worry. I have an idea, but just play along."

He nodded along, "Okay."

She gently pushed him against the shoulders to get him to take a step back so she could hop off the counter. She reached over and pulled several paper towels from the dispenser then stuck them under the faucet while turning on the water. Once they were damp, she turned back to the brown eyed teenager and started wiping over his lips, chin and the exposed skin just under his necklace where his open collar showed while he looked at her with wide eyed confusion. She slipped her arm under his right arm then led him to the stall he had just used.

She gently put a hand on his shoulder to indicate that he should kneel in front of it then clarified, "Get down and act like you're dry heaving into the toilet; put those acting skills to work."

"Okay…" he answered cautiously as Jade reached for the handle to flush the toilet then he knelt down over the toilet. She turned her attention to stuffing the hem of her shirt back into the waistband of her skirt and taking several calming breaths as she knew that her pale cheeks (and probably more of her exposed skin) had to be flushed with color.

As the water was flushing down, the door to the restroom finally opened up and Jade could hear someone approach then shout, "What's going on in—"

Jade took a step out of the stall to meet the person before he could peak inside the stall. She glare at a concerned employee, old enough to be a manger, and snap harshly hoping her outburst of anger would catch him off guard and give a reasonable explanation as to why her cheeks were flushed if they hadn't faded away, "I don't know what you put in that smoothie, but it made my friend start puking."

Just in time to emphasize her point, Freddie made a heaving sound loud enough to reverberate throughout the restroom.

The Jet Brew employee made a face showing his disgust at hearing the retching sound coming from the restroom stall then focused back on Jade. He started mumbling, "I'm sorry ma'am, but what are you doing in here?"

She snapped defensively as she was getting into the part, "Checking on my friend. What does it look like I'm doing?"

He started mouthing something while looking her in the eyes, "I thought, you… and—"

She turned on her acting skills with her shouting with false outrage, "You pervert! How dare you? I want to speak to _your_ boss right now!"

He rose his hands up in surrender, "No, you don't have to do that. Is there anything I can get you?"

The pale singer snorted out a breath then answered with her irritation filling her voice, "Yeah, a few more minutes of privacy and a refund for my friend."

He turned in his tracks and headed out as he nervously called out over his shoulder, "Okay."

Jade blew out a breath of relief as the door swung close then turned back to the stall. She leaned over and patted Freddie between his shoulder blades.

He pulled leg up to get a foot on the ground then stood up and turned to face the raven beauty. He smile as he commented, "Wow, you are good."

She smirked and slightly bowed her head slightly for a moment. She looked up and retorted, "You're not half bad yourself Freddie Benson."

Their smiles soon faded as they looked at each other apprehensively as the momentary spell was broken between them and they realized exactly what they were in the processes of doing when they were nearly caught.

She bowed her head, unable to look him in the eyes as she spoke, "Look Freddie… I… what I mean to say is…"

He slipped his hand into her hand. She immediately looked down at the strong hand holding her delicate and paler hand. His touch was still soft and warm and still so strong. She looked back up to him with an uncertain expression. He licked his lips then cautiously stated, "I'm not expected to be back at Tori's until seven… so if you need to talk, I'll listen… and you seemed to want to say a lot."

The look of kindness that he was giving her actually made her ache as she wished Beck would just give her that look again. She looked down at the hand holding hers and thought on his offer. After a few moments of contemplation that felt as if time actually felt stretched out to minutes or longer, she took a breath and laced her fingers with his fingers. She turned and pulled him along to head out of the restroom without him saying a word of protest.

* * *

Author's Note: Nathan Kress may have been officially uncredited for his appearance in the episode, but according to Lane's Slap page (which is controlled by Dan Schneider), Nathan is playing Freddie in the audience, so I'm taking it as true that was actually Freddie and not someone that looked just like his character. Also, thanks for reading and don't be shy to review.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: Wow, nearly six months since the last update. I didn't realize it had been that long. I hope this chapter will make up for the wait and that you'll still tell me how you think it is. Happy reading.

Jafkdb: To answer your most pressing question of when I'm continuing this story: I'll be posting the next chapter literally right now about two hours after your review. Now that is an amazing coincidence of your review.

I never intended to paint Carly and Sam in a negative light, just shining the light on them and apparently you've seen it in the characters on the show. I have alternative character interpretations, but I don't see them as villains.

ICVRFF: I didn't list this in the crossover section because it is leading directly from the Victorious episode and Freddie was the guest star on their show.

LanternFan: Post-arc gives me a lot to play with the character and his growth. Why did Jade make out with him? Read to find out. I guess we'll eventually see how Beck could react to Freddie and Jade closeness.

Jeremy Shane: Thanks.

Fanfic-Reader-88: Freddie and Jade are opposites yet I think they can compliment each other well as my other stories have shown.

I would say about the movie part is that Jade simply wasn't being objective. It's not like she liked Tori at that point anyway.

I thought it was a neat way to get them out of a sticky situation: sheer audacity from Jade.

Agent-M-0167: Varity is the spice of life, so I took a new approach for the couple. I'm glad you liked the chapter. I hope you like this one.

PD31: I'm glad you liked it. Let's see where it goes.

Guest: Thanks

Twilight Warrior 627: I hope I haven't disappointed with this next chapter.

Eletrickkid: Thanks, and who did?

I might have to increase the rating for Adult Content. If you think I should, I'd appreciate you letting me.

* * *

Chapter 2

"_I'm not expected to be back at Tori's until seven… so if you need to talk, I'll listen… and you seemed to want to say a lot."_

Jade West didn't want to talk. All talking did was eventually lead to a screaming match… they always lead to that with Beck and she didn't want that with Freddie. She wanted to escape… at least for a little while and not deal with the jealousy, the resentment, the belittlement or arguing that had become the four corners of her relationship with Beck as of late… if she was being honest with herself, the last several _months_. Talking would just bring on more of the pain (and not the good kind) and she just didn't want to deal with it right now, especially when she had such a good looking guy in the passenger seat that had his eyes only on her while the others gawked at him.

So she remained silent and apparently Freddie was respecting her silence as she drove while he remained quiet and took in the L.A. scenery through the passenger window. She occasionally glanced at him as she drove through the Friday afternoon traffic. He was a quite handsome boy to the pale actress's eyes and that wasn't the only positive quality that became quite apparent to her: she recalled the strength of his touch when lifted her off of her feet and held her, yet the underlining softness and gentleness behind it as her first kiss with him turned into a full-blown make out session.

She wouldn't normally see herself making out with a boy she barely knew (especially since she was with Beck). However 'barely knew' was a relative term as she of course she knew him from iCarly and the little time they conversed during the Kenan's party after their karaoke performance, but they hadn't really stayed in touch to get to know each other better. She had stayed in touched with Carly and Spencer for some reason. The younger Shay had very similar qualities as Tori, but didn't find her irritating in anyway as she found Tori and once you got to know Spencer, he was goofy and zany like Sikowitz which she found she connected with in seeing that he did have the heart of an artist. She guessed that's why she sent her a recording of her duet with Cat of 'Give it Up' to Carly and Spencer sent his prank video of him made up as a zombie that she used in her horror video she played during the 'prome'.

A piece of her regretted not keeping in touch with the tech-producer as obviously Tori had maintained enough contact to feel comfortable enough to let him stay at her home for the weekend. His kindness and sweetness was evident that contrary to what people believed, she did appreciate (how did they think she got along with André so well or dated Beck in the first place?) and his geekiness had a charm to it unlike Robbie's and especially Sinjin's geekiness.

However, she felt she was about to have the opportunity to correct that mistake and erase that regret as she pulled her car into her driveway then into the garage as soon as the door opened for her to pull inside the enclosure. There weren't any other vehicles in the garage which instantly informed her that her mother was still out.

She killed the ignition and opened her driver's side door and whispered, "Come on."

The pair made their way to the door that led into the kitchen and the raven girl quickly stuck her key into the lock then quickly opened it for them to enter.

Freddie wore a curious expression as he took a moment to glance around the high end kitchen as she closed and locked the door behind them. She pulled him out of taking in the house by gently grabbing his right wrist and leading him through the kitchen and up the stairs. They quickly made their way down the hall and into the actress' room.

Jade let him enter first then clicking the light switch and allow him to immediately be taken by his curiosity to look around the figuratively dark room.

She didn't care for the moment on how he was assessing the room and making any kind of judgment calls about her as she turned her attention to locking her bedroom door behind them.

Clicking the button to her lock apparently was loud enough to grab the Seattleite's attention as he turned and gave her a mixed expression of concern and curiosity.

She whispered out coyly grabbing the tech-producer's attention, "So…" She gave him a wicked smirk and he looked back with even more of a concerned expression. She leisurely strolled over to him and softly placed her right hand on the center of his chest. She took another step forward, gently guiding him backwards until he reached her burgundy cushioned seat. He was about to voice his concern, but she gave him a slight shoved that caused him a fall back into the chair.

His eyes shot open as she straddled him and braced each of her knees on either side of him in the chair. She smirked to him then grabbed his cheeks and brought him into a kiss along with pulling herself close enough for her center to rest over his crotch area.

She deepened the kiss and tried to bully her tongue passed his lips. He didn't need much bullying as he closed his eyes and started willing returning the kiss and parting his lips; however, he wasn't surrendering to the aggressiveness of her tongue as he was willing to fence with his tongue in return and that brought a grin to her face.

Her hips intuitively started slowly rotating to grind herself against him instinctively trying to recapture that feeling she experienced from the friction of the two after he had sat her on the restroom counter. The contact immediately started sending pleasure up and down her spin and she started softly mewing into her kisses while he growled in return and rested his hands over the back of her skirt.

The pale raven pulled her hands away from his cheeks and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck in an attempt to draw him closer as they traded kisses and only stopping for the briefest of moments to capture their breath and even then they weren't entirely successful each time before they went onto the next kiss as her now pink cheeks testified.

He responded in kind by slipping his hands under her skirt and cupped her bottom. The pleasure between them instantly spiked from the additional friction and her eyes clenched tightly as she softly caught his bottom lip between her teeth from a particular spike of pleasure shooting up her spine. Once the pleasure ebbed for a moment she licked his bottom lip and kissed it, afraid that she may had inadvertently bit him and trying to ease away any pain.

After a few more moments of her gentle ministration, he lifted her up and stood up, relying on his built up strength from all the physical rehab after the taco truck accident. She wrapped her legs around him and locked her ankles as he carried her a few feet to her bed. He slipped his right hand up to the small of her back to support her as he leaned forward and turned to gently rest her on the bed and let her head line up to so her pillow could catch it.

She released her legs from his back and side as he scooted onto the bed with his knees. His face hovered over hers for a moment, but neither made eye contact with the other then he captured her lips again. She was all for another dueling session with their tongues, but he surprised her by pulling his lips away to kiss down her chin then under it as he made his way down her neck.

He stopped for a moment on her left pulse point and kissed it several times as he did at the Jet Brew shop with the addition of teasing the spot with the tip of his tongue. A part of her mind hoped that he would actually softly bite her and her subconscious replied to that suggestion by slipping her right hand to the back of his head and pressed his head further against her neck hoping he would take the hint.

The next moment she felt his teeth softly nibbling the spot, but not hard enough to leave any teeth marks. After a few seconds he started his way down again and kissed on her collarbone. She was slightly disappointed that he hadn't bit down a little harder, but another part of her debated that he probably thought he'd hurt her if he did such a thing and found that additional tenderness a greater turn on.

He kissed down her bare skin exposed from her scooped top then stopped to kiss on her cleavage. His kisses slowed down in urgency as his right hand still resting behind the small of her back and caught between her and the bed slipped out and up her side then stopped to palm and rest over her left breast.

Her eyes remained closed took in a soft breath as he hand just rested, not groping her or any other obscene gesture that one might expect from a horny teenage boy, but just resting. His other hand pulled away from her bottom and up her side, softly trailing his fingertips up her side to send a slight shiver through her then stop over her right breast.

She started to wonder why his hands remained still as he continued to kiss around her cleavage until she heard the first snap of the second button of her shirt being undone. The sound surprised her, but strangely, she didn't object nor did she object when she heard the third then a fourth button come undone.

However, she was further surprised as he didn't pull open her shirt as the buttons were undone, but only enough to reveal her black bra. His lips softly pressed more than kissed the swell of her right breast then across her cleavage to tenderly press his lips on the swell of her left breast. He trailed his lips to between her breasts and left a few kisses just above the point where the cups of her bra met and the side of her breasts. She regretted for a moment that she hated bras that hooked in the front because at the moment it would really come in handy.

He pulled his lips away from her pale skin and decided to skip undoing more buttons and going further down her shirt to stop at the waistband of her skirt. His hands moved down to pull her grey shirt out of the waistband of her dark colored skirt for a second time that day. His lips grazed her skin just above the waist of the skirt then he placed a gentle kiss on her near porcelain skin.

He pushed the hem of her shirt just a little further up then he placed another kiss on her lower abdomen.

She gently brushed the back of his head as she looked down at him and bit her bottom lip as she felt him push her shirt up just a little further up then leave another soft kiss on her abdomen. He didn't look up (which she hoped so she could meet his eyes), but continued to focus on her. She left out a soft breath through barely parted lips as closed her eyes and let her head rest back on her pillow while she felt him repeat the process a few more times: push the hem of her shirt up then leave a kiss on her unblemished skin, push the shirt up further and leave another butterfly kiss.

He repeated this process in a painfully slow manner to Jade's impatience and was about to complain—_beg_ him—to stop teasing her when she let out a sharp cry of surprise pass her lips as she felt the tip of his tongue dip into her bellybutton then another cry, but one of soft giggles because of his lips and tongue playing with her bellybutton brought on a tickling sensation. She felt his lips part in such a way on her abdomen that she could tell that he was smiling, apparently quite pleased with himself that he could bring such an utterance past her lips.

She should be furious with him for that kind of teasing and making her giggle of all things, but another part of her couldn't help but be touched that he was taking such care to try to bring her pleasure. She started kneading the back of his head as her fingers slipped through his short hair as her impatience grew again wanting him to move on from his teasing of her abdomen, so she finally broke the verbal silence between them whispered out, "L-l-lower Freddie…"

The contact of his lips on her skin suddenly stopped and brought furled brow over her closed eyes. She lifted her head off of her pillow to look down with a slight concern and their eyes finally met one another since she had first kissed him. He stared at her with an odd expression as his smile fading from her smiling up at him with an admittedly lustful look in her eyes.

"No," he whispered in a hollowed tone as he started to frown.

She blinked and looked to him with confusion.

He slightly shook his head and continued with a hushed tone, "Too much compromise…" He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I've done too much of that."

The raven hair colored teenager's mouth became a thin line for a moment as she studied his eyes. Her heart and maybe her soul was suddenly filled with rage at the idea that he was rejecting her. Her hands went for resting against the back of his head to clenching his partially opened shirt shoved him hard to completely roll off to her right side and from between her legs.

She sat up and swung her legs out to sit on the edge of her bed.

He pulled himself into a seated position and whispered over her shoulder. "I'm sorry Jade."

She looked over her shoulder and hissed out venomously, "Jank you!"

He slightly frowned, but didn't turn his eyes away from the near murderous look she was giving him. She had no real way of knowing, but her look wouldn't work on him since Sam had been giving him near identical looks over the years (and backing it up with violence) and they may have inspired fear in the past, that had long since passed during his relationship with her.

She growled out and pointed to the door and shouted, "Get out!"

He scooted around her off the bed to sit beside her on the edge of the bed and blew out a soft breath as he answered, "No."

If it was possible, she gave him an even more murderous expression and whispered out, "Oh?"

He calmly replied with an unfettering look in his eyes, "Besides the fact that you drove? I just can't walk away from this."

She gritted out through her white teeth, "And why not?"

The Seattleite answered with a hushed tone, "Because I care."

She laughed out with a hollowed tone, "You care?"

"Yes _I care_," he answered with a determined tone.

"Why?"

He looked her dead in the eyes and stated, "Maybe I found my heart and moral compass again after chucking it over the last several weeks?"

She snorted out in disgust, "Oh save your noble chizz. That's just something a guy would say to get inside a girl's panties." She mentally hissed at having to say the word panties.

He snorted out and snapped back, "I just_ turned you down_, not used my 'noble chizz' to go further."

She slightly frowned as his words cut right through her shield of anger and into her heart. She blinked once then twice then felt the moisture slide down from her tear dot and between her cheek and nose. She blinked several more times and growled in trying to fight back the tears, but finally gave up at seeing the futility of holding back the dam and covered her eyes with the bottom of her palms and heaved out a cry.

As her palms covered her closed eyes, she felt a shift in the bed next to her then a soft touch on her hose covered knees just in front of her elbows resting on her thighs.

Through her crying she heard the soft voice, "It's okay Jade."

She lowered her hands from her face and opened up her tear fill eyes to lock with his soft brown eyes as the technical producer knelt down in front of her and give her a reassuring smile. He maintained that supportive smile as he started buttoning her shirt back up as he focused his eyes on her bluish-green eyes.

She took a slow breath as she just watched him delicately buttoning her shirt back up just as delicately as he had undone them.

Once he finished the second to the last button, he whispered, "It would be easy just to forget everything and share this comfort with you… to enjoy _this moment_ with a very _beautiful_ girl, but… a beautiful girl that is very attached at the moment and is hurting. I can't take advantage of you… and I can't let you take advantage of me."

He stood up from his kneeling position and retook a seat on her bed to her right. He wrapped his left arm around her back and his right over to rest his hand on her hip. She naturally leaned into his embrace and cradle her head in the left side crook of his neck. He held her for a few minutes and just let the silence hang in the room. She finally whispered, "I love Beck; I really do, but… I get so _mad at him_. I'm tired. I'm so tired Freddie."

He kissed her brow ring then whispered, "What are you tired about?"

She just stared off without focusing on anything as she whispered, "Beck lets other girls flirt with him and he doesn't care how much it hurts me. You looked at me like I was the only thing that mattered. I just… tired of everything being taken from me or someone trying to take something from me."

He answered with a hollow tone, "I can understand that better than you know." He moved his right hand from her hip to reach up and cup her left hand. He laced his fingers with her fingers. He quietly asked, "Have you told Beck that?"

"He won't listen. It just… we just fight and nothing changes. We're fighting right now over text messages and I don't know what we're fighting about."

Freddie took a breath and gave her a nod. "Then have you considered that maybe it's time to move on from Beck?"

She snapped her head up and gave him a harsh glare that smacked right into honest, genuine and open eyes. Her anger faltered for a moment from the unexpected reaction and answered softly, "I just can't dump Beck or forget about him. We've been together for three years and three months—"

"I'm seventeen and I've been in love with Carly since I was eleven years old and I nearly _died for her_. I know exactly where you're coming from and I'm not taking lightly what I'm saying to you."

He shook his head as he finished is point with a regretful tone, "I don't know if you should move on, but… I think you should at least ask yourself the question at what point do you just walk away from something that isn't working? Maybe this is the sign that it's time to just end it?"

"Can you move on from Carly? Is that why you really tried with Sam?"

He took a deep breath then slowly answered with her hearing the struggle in his voice, "Maybe I was trying with Sam… when I was thirteen, I thought Carly could keep kissing those frogs, but… it's like she just doesn't learn from _any_ of her mistakes and how long should I wait for an answer?"

"Maybe she isn't the only one."

He bowed his head and regretfully agreed with the possibility, "Maybe she's not. Maybe were not meant to be…"

She sucked in a sharp breath as she could literally see his heart break from the look in his partially shielded eyes and it instantly dragged the memory of her heart breaking when she broke up with Beck the first time. She let her left hand slip from his grasp and cup his cheek so she could place a chaste kiss on his lips. The kiss last longer than expected for either of them as it just seemed different than the other ones they had just exchanged, at least for Jade anyway as she closed her eyes from the contact.

She pulled away moments later to meet his eyes again then asked with a fearful tone of that of a small child, "Why does it hurt so much?"

He surprisingly cracked a smile and answered as if it was the most obvious answer in the world, "Because we love them that much."

Even the scariest girl at Hollywood Arts had to crack a smile as she snorted out a breath and her eyes lit back up.

The pair rested their foreheads against one another and sat there for what seemed like minutes but could have been seconds until Freddie whispered, "Why did you kiss me? At Jet Brew?"

She shrugged a shoulder then whispered, "I had my reasons."

He slightly bowed his head and gave her a soft smirk. "You just cheated on your boyfriend with me; I hope they were good reasons."

She narrowed her gaze on him as she hated to admit it that was exactly what she had done.

He let out a soft chuckle, "I'm used to scary—it doesn't work to push me away."

She bowed her head and softly growled as she couldn't intimidate him. "Those girls looked at you as if you were some piece of meat they wanted to jump… just like when girls stare at Beck."

He wasn't sure he heard her right, so he questioned, "You were claiming your territory?"

She rolled her eyes and looked away from him embarrassingly.

He gave her hand a gentle squeeze of her hand that she took as his way of telling her that he wasn't judging her.

She looked back to meet his eyes and bashfully answered, "I just wanted to be wanted…"

The brown eyed teenager swallowed down his own apprehension and answered, "I can understand that too… especially from the one that we love."

She bowed her head and rested her head back on his shoulder and the crown under his chin.

The pair again remained silent and Jade closed her eyes and let herself calm her breathing and settle in his arms. She realized that she was in no hurry to leave her position from the wayward tech-producer. She was relaxing so well that she knew she would be drift off to sleep.

However, Freddie was the one that broke the silence and prevent her for doing such a thing, "I'm not the one that usually comes up with the harebrain schemes and this might be mean and may blow up in our faces, but… maybe we should find a way to wake Beck up in realizing he's neglecting you?"

She furled her brow in confusion and blinked open her eyes to pull back from falling into slumber. She looked up to him and questioned, "How?"

He nervously laughed, "Since I'm going to be here for almost the entire weekend… I could make him _think_ that you being his girlfriend isn't something he should take for granted? How would you think he would react if I asked you to go somewhere with me in an ambiguous way? Make him question if I was just asking you to go out as a friendly gesture since I'm in L.A. or give me a chance to make my moves on you? Maybe show him how it feels for someone chasing you?"

She shook her head and whispered, "Do know how childish and petty you sound with that idea?"

He cracked a smile and softly laughed back, "I said it was a harebrain scheme and you'd be shocked at how many work for us in Seattle."

"This isn't Seattle," she pointed out the obvious with a raise of her pierced eyebrow.

He shrugged a shoulder and gave her a playful expression, "I can see that… but everything else has seemed to fail for you to get him to hear you, so… maybe I can catch his attention?"

She snorted out a breath then mumbled, "I don't have anything else to lose and it's not like I haven't had my share of being parts of nutty schemes."

He answered to her ears near painful tone of regret, "It's not about whether he believes it or not…"

She slightly pursed her lips and asked with a hint of worry, "What's that?"

He whispered with a remorseful tone, "That he doesn't react."

The pale raven haired teenager frowned and took a sharp breath through her nose at the idea that her relationship with Beck was that much in peril.

The tech-producer bowed his head and commented with a tired voice, "I know what that's like too."

She slightly parted her lips to try to comfort him, but he was a tad bit quicker with a surprisingly upbeat tone that he apparently found somewhere in his heart, "But that's not how this has to end for you."

She gave him a genuine smile of thanks as she didn't know words could convey her appreciation.

After a few seconds, he asked in surprisingly casual tone, "Are you hunger?"

She was caught off guard by such a mundane question with a slight frown and a knotted brow. She faltered with her answer for a few moments then finally responded as her stomach start to softly growl, "Yeah… I am…"

He smiled and stood up; she instantly felt a slight chill go through her frame from him pulling away. "Then how about we go ahead and head to Tori's and get some dinner?"

The bluish eyed teenager slightly tilted her head to the side and questioned, "You want to start now? But Beck's not going to be there."

He softly shook his head and whispered with a reassuring smile, "No, I just want to have dinner with my friend."

She sniffled and nodded her head as a smile formed on her face. She licked her lips, and still tasting a little bit of him, then answered, "I'd like to have dinner with my friend too."

He nodded then started, "I'll give you a few minutes to ah… freshen up?" His eyes fell to the floor as he seemed lost on if they way he finish his statement was appropriate.

She smiled as she bowed her head as she strangely felt embarrassed for him and felt her cheeks slightly warm again after having just cooled off during their heart-to-heart. She reassured him, "I'll meet you in the kitchen."

He softly laughed as he pointed over his right shoulder. "Ah, could I use a bathroom?"

She hated to assume anything with him having to go to the bathroom since he had just used it less than an hour ago, but… She needlessly pointed past him towards the door and answered, "Downstairs, cut through the kitchen and living room and there's one in the hallway, first door on your right."

He cleared his throat and nodded. "I'll meet you in the kitchen." He turned and headed out of the room.

Once he turned the corner, Jade looked down at herself and saw how disheveled she appeared even with her shirt button back up and realized she needed to go to the bathroom… and perhaps change a few articles of clothing if she was going to the Vegas' for dinner.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter and stay tuned. I'm not sure when the next update will be however.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Hello everyone, I hope everyone is doing well. I have another chapter for you in this odd little story about a mean girl that likes coffee and a nice guy that likes smoothies.

Twilight Warrior 627: I already have a story where they went there before they were even a couple :P

Dan ran Freddie's character into the ground to make him get with Sam and I just pulled him out of it by having him learn from the relationship that he will never make the same mistake again. For any Seddies who might be upset that I said that, remember, Freddie in 'iLove You' admitted he got into because the kiss was fun and he forced feelings that weren't there. It was an insult to your ship and threw away all the potential to a real exploration of them as a pairing.

PD31: Noble or crazy for turning down a girl that looks identical to Elizabeth Gillies especially when she tells him to go lower when he was already at her bellybutton. Also, that will left to be seen, but since 'TFB&J' it will be interesting how he will respond since for the reasons the got back with Jade, love was not one of them.

Jeremy Shane: Thanks

Fanfic-Reader-88: The one thing you could say about Freddie before the Seddie arc was that he wasn't solely going for girls on looks, but always wanted to get to know them to be in a relationship, not an easy hookup.

Anlmoon: Thank you, it is a fun pairing to write as character types they are opposite, yet have so much in common.

angel-1844: Thanks, and I have updated sooner.

Challenge King: Thanks and it is easy for them to have passion as they each understand the concept of love better than all the other characters.

Agent-M-0167: It is a very terrifying dilemma to realize that the person that you thought loved you turns out not to have loved you as much as you loved them. That was what was disturbing about 'Tori Fixes Beck and Jade', loving Jade wasn't one of the reasons he got back with her and they had been together for 3 years, 7 months before. One would think that would have been a big contributing factor.

Now on with the chapter.

Rating: T

* * *

Chapter 3

Jade took a deep breath as she looked at herself in the mirror after quickly freshening up, fixing the last of her light make up, straightening her shirt and buttoning up her skirt (after having to change her leggings and undergarment after she had gotten far more… excited than she originally realized from her encounter with Freddie).

Now all she had to do now was exit her bathroom and head downstairs, just turn to her right and walk out of the room. That's all she had to do… just turn and walk… to face the very strong, gentle and handsome teenager that she had just cheated with against her boyfriend.

"_L-l-lower Freddie…"_

She took a deep breath and blinked as the words she had spoken to him earlier crossed her mind. She shook her head to clear that thought and finally rallied the courage to turn away from the mirror so she could make her way down stairs.

The dark haired teenager made her way down the stairs to find the handsome teenager patiently waiting in the kitchen. She stopped at the last step and rested her right hand over the decorative knob on top of the end of the stair banister. She took a moment to look over him and gaze over his physical appearance. She couldn't deny his physical attractiveness and strength he showed with her and she couldn't deny how much of a turn on that had been for her.

He looked up at her with a smile plastered on his handsome features, but she returned with a cautious expression with slightly parted lips and eyes opened a little wider than normal as if she had just been caught doing something inappropriately (and ignoring the fact that she had been doing something inappropriately with him probably a good twenty minutes ago).

Freddie slightly frowned at her returned and expression and asked with clear concern in his voice, "Are you alright?"

She glanced down at the floor and swallowed down her nervousness as she took the final step to kitchen floor. She mumbled out without looking up to meet his eyes, "I'm fine… ready to go?"

"Just as soon as you tell me what's bothering you."

She snapped her head up and gave him a deep frown with a harsh glare. She hissed out, "I told you I'm fine."

He cracked the softest of smiles as he countered, "No you're not. What's wrong?"

She maintained her harsh glare as she took a step forward in an attempt to intimidate him since it usually worked for every guy at Hollywood Arts; however unlike the boys at school that would immediately backpedal, Freddie maintained his spot and she was forced to stop in her tracks before she literally bumped into him.

She tried to ignore the fact that she was close enough to smell the hint of his cologne or the soft breath from his nose tickling her upper lip or that she was close enough for a kiss. She tried to set aside all of those things by answering with a low growl, "I'm fine. Are you just one of those stubborn people?"

She saw the hesitation in his eyes to answer her, but she quickly realized that it wasn't out of her successfully intimidating him as she saw a hint of nervousness, but lacked of any element of fear in his eyes.

He licked his lips then answered, "Maybe, but it's not that. I've just learned how to pick up on being lied to." Her frown of anger turned into one of confusion as he was able to put on a knowing smile while continuing, "Something else I learned from Sam since she's a self proclaimed master at it."

Jade smirked in return and retorted without actually bothering to think on her statement, "How do you know she's not just lying about that part?"

Freddie instantly snorted out a laugh then started letting out a hearty laugh that Jade found became surprisingly infectious. It may have not been a particularly funny joke, but for some reason they were feeding off the other's laughter. He steadied himself by resting his hands on her hips and she instinctively rested her hands on his muscular chest over his black vest.

Once the pair settled their laughter, their eyes met one another with mirroring smiles. However as the seconds ticked away, Jade's smile faltered and she put on an apprehensive expression while Freddie returned with one of concern and asked, "Are you going to tell me what's bothering you?"

She bowed her head as she kept her hands on his chest. She whispered out so softly that she wondered if she had actually spoken or she had just thought her statement, "I asked you to go lower."

He answered with a sweet, reassuring tone to the dark haired teenager, "And we stopped—"

She glanced up to meet his eyes and interrupted, "No… I've never asked Beck to go lower… we've never…"

Freddie's eyes widened as he took in a breath. He started having a fit to clear his throat and do everything in his power to avoid looking into her eyes. "You what? You mean you're a—"

She narrowed her eyes again on him with a harsh glare and questioned with a threatening tone, "I'm a _what_?"

His mouth started opening and closing like a fish as he tried to mutter out, "I mean… I thought… you've been together for so long that _maybe_…"

She frowned at him and continued to question, "What? You thought I would give it up that easily even to him?" A part of her knew how ridiculous she sounded as over the course of the last hour she had jumped him twice with the potential result of either encounter ending in such a way, but she needed to remain in control of the conversation so she fell back on the only thing she had left: sheer audacity.

He bowed his head and took a quick breath then slowly let it out. "Let me put it another way… my mother is a very devout woman and she's had a very particular way to raise me in regards to sex which I agree with, but… if I had been with Carly as long as you've been with Beck while loving her as much as I have and she the same with me… I'm not going to say I wouldn't have been tempted to express our love for one another if she was willing… so if you think I'm making some kind of judgment against you or think less of you from maybe assuming you and Beck had… I'm not. I just do know how that level of love feels and it might be frustrating on how to express it."

Her threatening expression quickly turned into one of wide eyed and thin lipped. "Oh…" she whispered and the small black cross hanging around her neck almost being a neon sign for his statement. She bowed her head in the hope to shield her face from displaying her embarrassment. "Well… okay, I—I get that. I can see how you could see that from your perspective. You said you loved—love her… nearly dying for her…" She blinked at the idea that he would do such a thing then cautiously questioned, "Did you really nearly die for Carly?"

Freddie gave her a patient smile and answered with a near hallowed tone, "Yes, I was pushed her out of the way of a taco truck that nearly ran over her, but it hit me."

He gently took her right hand still resting on his chest with his left hand and raised his right wrist up to her from her hip. She looked at him with a perplex expression at his held wrist then noticed several tiny scars on his wrist. He brought her hand over his wrist and her fingertips brushed over the slight roughness over the otherwise smooth skin. "That's where they removed the pins after the six weeks it took for my wrist to heal after being broken."

She looked up at him with nearly doe eyes, but he ignored the expression for a moment as he bent over to his left and started pulling up his left jean leg up to above his knee. He turned his leg slightly and she turned her attention to the muscular leg, but noticed a more prominent scar around his knee. He glanced to her eyes to meet them and guide them to the scar on his leg then whispered, "That's from the knee surgery to repair the damage. I wore a cast for six weeks and I still have pins in my leg and a plate."

He gently retook her right hand and brought it to the left side of his forehead and let her fingertips brush over. "I don't know if you can feel it, but that's where my head was sliced open. For a flesh wound, I sure bleed a lot from it."

He lowered her hand, but continued to gently hold it as he looked her directly into her eyes. She took a sharp breath from the intensity of his look as he finished, "It's one thing to say you would die for someone, it's another to willing back the statement up… and I bare the scars… inside and out to prove my love."

She tried to put up her tough girl image, but she couldn't deny how moving that level of devotion of love from Freddie. She questioned for a moment if Beck would ever go that far for her if the occasion called for it. She felt a soft chill go through her as she couldn't give herself a definitive answer.

She reached out with her other hand to gently take his right wrist back up, but to stop in front of her lips and carefully kissed over the tiny scars with a piece of her wishing that she could kiss them away. She lowered his hand then barely lifted off of her heels so that her lips could reach his forehead.

When she was back to eye level with him, he gave her a timid expression as she whispered, "You're a very brave man Freddie… any girl would be lucky to have you."

The tech-producer bowed his head and bashfully answered, "Thank you." He cleared his throat then looked her in the eyes to continue, "But back to you, don't feel guilty… you just needed to be wanted. It doesn't mean you love Beck any less… and I wouldn't have gone any further than you wanted me to go if I hadn't—'snapped' out of it."

Jade took a moment to study his soft brown eyes to try to determine the sincerity of his words. It wasn't hard as his eyes were completely honest and as reassuring as that was to her a part of her found it disturbing that Beck couldn't do the same with her at times. She took several more seconds to form an answer then replied, "Thanks… now enough chitchat; let's get to Tori's and get something to eat."

He smirked then readily agreed, "Sounds good to me, lead the way."

Vega Residence  
Los Angeles, CA

Tori opened the door with an expecting smile and commented as she sat her eyes on the pair, "Wow, I didn't expect you to be gone so long." She stepped aside for the pair to enter the nice home.

Jade crossed her arms under her chest and was about to sarcastically snap at the lighter brunette, but Freddie laughed over his shoulder, "Oh, that's my fault."

The raven hair girl sucked in a sharp breath at hearing him admit such a thing and felt a momentary bit of panic as Tori gave them a strange expression while closing the door behind them and the pair turned to face the brunette.

Freddie let out a soft laugh as he explained, "We went to Jet Brew after Beck couldn't make it to pick us up. Jade wanted some coffee and I wanted to try one of their smoothies—_not the best idea._" He gave an awkward laugh then continued, "Something was wrong with my smoothie and a few minutes later, my head was over a toilet in their restroom. Jade came to check on me and helped clean myself up a little." He looked to the pale girl and commented with a tender voice, "Real sweet of her."

Jade put on a somewhat shocked expression as if she didn't know any better, would have bought his story and the fact that he called her 'sweet'.

He looked back to Tori and finished, "We went back to Jade's so she could get me something to settle my stomach and wrap up catching up."

Tori instantly put on a worried expression as she took a step towards him and rested a hand on his right bicep. "But you're okay now?"

Jade's brow instantly furled as she felt a familiar sensation seep into her chest at watching Tori's reaction to Freddie.

He glanced to the raven haired girl and commented, "Yeah and Jade was able to get me a refund too. She scared the mess out of the manager."

Tori nodded along as she apparently was accepting of the explanation with a quick glance towards the green streaked hair girl and soft smirk. "She has that way with people."

Jade frowned in return, but instead of engaging in any verbal sparring, Tori continued with Freddie, "Are you going to be able to eat dinner? What mom's fixing might be too heavy for you." She motioned her head past the pair to behind them towards the kitchen.

The pair turned to see Mrs. Vega deeply involved in cooking dinner, so she didn't pay attention to the teenagers.

Freddie looked back to Tori and gave her a reassuring smile. "I think my stomach is pretty settled, but I'll take it easy and if I start to get queasy, I'll just stop and have the rest as leftovers later tonight?"

Tori gave him a relieved expression with a smile. "That's fine. We'll have popcorn for the movie and leftovers if you have to."

Freddie broke into a smile at the suggestion, and Tori blinked and pointed to Freddie's mouth as she noticed something. "What's wrong with your lip?"

His right hand shot up to touch his bottom lip with the pads of his pointer and middle finger. His lip was slightly split horizontally and bruised.

Jade sucked in a breath as she realized that she had bit down enough on his bottom lip to hurt him.

The tech-producer nervously laughed out as he dropped his hand away from his lip, "Oh, I guess I bit my lip somehow when I was throwing up." He looked to Jade and she was reassured with a soft smile from him. "I guess neither one of us noticed it."

The screenwriter gave a slight nod of her head and put on an even expression to do her best to cover for the fact that she was the one responsible for his lip.

Freddie turned his gaze to her and she could see that he was trying to reassuring her and absolve her of anything with his soft smile and kind look in his eyes.

Tori tenderly cupped under his chin and pulled his gaze from Jade (which sent an instant spike of fury through the raven girl) as she examined his lip. "You bit yourself pretty good. Does it hurt?"

He snorted out a laugh, "Since you're the one that noticed, I guess not. I'll be fine—"

Jade interrupted him by grabbing Freddie by the wrist and started pulling on him to follow her. "Let me go doctor it up," she instructed whether than asking him and ignored the surprised expression from her rival as she dragged him around the couch to head upstairs.

* * *

The pair was in Tori's bathroom with Freddie resting his bottom and gripping his hands back against the edge of the bathroom sink counter while Jade was standing close enough for their shoes/boots to contact and if he hadn't been leaning slightly back, would have been chest to chest. She was standing that close as she had a tiny bit of topical medication on the tip of right hand middle finger while she gently held Freddie's chin with her other hand.

Jade dabbed the slight abrasion with her finger and he hissed out for a moment from the contact of her the ointment off her finger.

She gave him a sorrowful expression and whispered, "Sorry I bit your lip… I just…" She bowed her head slightly to avoid his gaze as she lowered her hand away from his lip and finished, "You made me feel _really_ good at that moment and I… reacted."

He softly whispered, "Good."

Her eyes shot up in surprise to meet his eyes.

His eyes shot open and his cheeks instantly started to blush at realizing what he had just spoken. He cleared his throat and tried to clarify, "I mean… in the moment… the point was to make you feel good. I may have not been thinking completely clearly, but that didn't mean I didn't have enough sense to make sure you were enjoying it."

She slightly bowed her head as she thought back on both makeout sessions. He had focused on her completely, trying to hit her erogenous zones or potential ones without going too far. She hadn't even got one button undone on his shirt. She commented without conscious thought as she continued to recall his touches and kisses, "You did…"

She looked up as she realized what she had spoken and met patient and welcoming eyes.

"I'm glad I could bring you at least that little bit of pleasure."

She broke into a soft smile as he continued, "At least I didn't leave a mark on you. I was afraid I would… I wouldn't want to hurt you."

She raised her pierced eyebrow, "Too bad?"

His brow knotted up and asked as if he hadn't heard her correctly, "You wanted me to bite you?"

She gave him a wicked smirk and answered in a hushed tone, "I'm into vampires."

He broke into a wide grin and softly chuckled, "You wanted me to go all Fredward Cullen on you?"

She slightly frowned as she didn't understand the reference. "Fredward Cullen?"

He let out a soft laugh. "We did a parody about a year ago on the whole vampire craze. I dressed up as Edward Cullen and really cheesed it up… the ladies loved it; I nearly had to beat them off with a stick."

"I guess I'll have to see it."

He smirked as he leaned closer with his lips mere millimeters from her lips and gazing straight into her eyes. He whispered out in a low, soft tone as he had used for his parody, "I'm not responsible if you fall for me… or bite you murderously."

She wanted to laugh at his tone in thinking that had worked on other girls, but the intensity eyes caught her breath in her throat. Her eyes flickered to his lips as she softly felt his hands rest on her hips.

She wasn't sure which one of them leaned in first, but the next moment their lips were in contact. The taste of the bit of ointment on his bottom lip was bitter, but she didn't care as she deepened the kiss and slid her arms up his chest to wrap around the back of his neck. He returned the intensity of the kiss as she felt him pull her closer to him and her breast pressed against his muscular chest.

"What are you two doing?" a drawling voice called out.

Jade instantly pulled away and turned her head to look at the owner of the voice and whatever color her face held drained away. She heard from her left ear Freddie trying to quickly clear his throat.

The pair looked to see Trina standing in the hallway. However, she didn't look wide awake, but groggy as her eyes couldn't seem to really focus on either of them.

Freddie called out with a concerned tone, "Trina, what are you doing out of bed?"

"I needed to wazz," she hissed out half asleep, but still managing enough to put her sense of irritation in her voice. She turned her attention to Jade and questioned, "What are you doing kissing my man? I called dibs on him."

Jade knotted her brow and felt a sense of outrage that Trina could call ownership over Freddie.

Freddie walked over and gently took Trina by the arm and motioned his head for Jade to take the other girl's arm. He calmly explained, "Trina, the pain medication they gave you is making you see things. Jade was just putting some medication on my lip. I bit it earlier when I drank something that made me sick." He looked to Jade and she instantly saw that he was hoping she would play along.

The raven haired girl nodded along and walked over to take Trina's other arm to help Freddie lead Trina into the bathroom.

"Oh? I could have taken care of that," she muttered out with a goofy grin.

He smiled to the older Vega sister as they guided her to the toilet. "That's sweet Trina, but you need to be looked after. Do you need help to use the bathroom?"

Jade's eyes shot open at hearing the question. Of course she knew that Freddie didn't mean himself to help her unless it was a dire emergency, but worried that he was about to volunteer her to help the comedic actress. That fear was quickly squashed as he continued, "Do you want me to get Tori or your mom?"

Trina verbally brushed him off with half closed eyes as they reached the toilet, "No, I'm fine." She shook her arms out of their grasps then raised the top seat of the toilet. She looped her thumbs between the waistband of her sweatpants and hips and started pulling them down.

Freddie threw up a hand to cover his eyes while Jade shouted in outrage, "Trina! Give Freddie a chance to leave the room!"

"Soorrryyy! But I have to wazz!" she answered becoming even more incoherent as she finished pulling her pants down and sat on the toilet.

Jade quickly took Freddie by the elbow and led him out of the bathroom while he kept his eyes covered so that he wouldn't run into anything. She was quick in getting them out of the bathroom and he quickly gave her a thankful smile before they started back to the first floor.

Freddie was the first in the living room with Jade just a step behind him to his right and surprising to the pale teenager, Tori was at the bottom of the stairs to meet them. She gave the pair a concerned expression as she commented, "I thought I heard shouting?"

The actress was quick to reply, "It was just your sister going nuts on the pain killers they gave her."

Freddie motioned over his shoulder with his thumb and commented with a soft laugh, "Trina's in the bathroom. I think someone should check on her in a few minutes; Jade's right, the pain medication is really doing a trip on her."

Jade crossed her arms under her chest and rolled her eyes. She muttered out with a hint of disgust in her voice, "Yeah, I'm trying to doctor is lip and she just comes barging in there to use the bathroom. She didn't even give Freddie the chance to get out of the bathroom before she started pulling down her pants.

Tori's eyes shot open and her mouth started opening and closing like a fish.

"She did what?" Mrs. Vega called out from the kitchen apparently now willing to pay attention to her guests.

Freddie quickly assured her with a nervous laugh, "I didn't see a thing ma'am."

Tori started, "Oh… okay—"

Jade muttered out loud enough for Mrs. Vega to hear from the kitchen, "Wouldn't have been your fault anyway."

The combination of statements from the teenagers was apparently enough for Holly as she turned back to her cooking.

Tori threw a quick glance to her rival then looked back to Freddie to continue speaking, "I'll check on her and get her back into bed then we can go ahead and have dinner."

Jade slightly frowned as it hadn't been brought up that Freddie wanted her to stay.

"Sounds great," he began then looked to Jade for the briefest of moments to catch her eyes. She wasn't sure what he saw in them, but regardless, he looked back to Tori and asked, "Is it okay if Jade stays for dinner? We really didn't get a chance to catch up between the throwing up and trying to settle me at her house. We can all swap stories over dinner?"

The brunette was caught off guard for a moment, but quickly gathered her wits as she answered, "No—I mean no, it's not a problem." She looked over her shoulder to her mother and called out, "We can set an extra plate?"

"Oh, she'll just have Trina's portion," the matriarch casually answered.

Jade raised a corner of her mouth and her right eyebrow as she looked Freddie. He returned with a charming smile and the pale girl noticed from the corner of her eye that Tori raised an eyebrow too with a slight questioning look in her eyes.

The pale raven girl kept her focus on Freddie's eyes as she heard the brunette commented with a cautious tone while making her way towards the stairs, "I'll go check on Trina and be down in a few minutes."

* * *

Author's Note: I know what you're probably scratching your heads about why am I asserting that Jade is a virgin when I know a good majority of Bade fans believe that they are active. Well, when the series first began back in 2010, I assumed that too with them being together already for so long before the series began and they are teenagers after all (and why else would he put up with her attitude for that long), but then 'Jade Dumps Beck' aired fairly early in the series run and made me believe that they aren't active. Why? From a guy's perspective, if they were, Beck would not have complained about getting only a can of lemonade on his birthday. Almost two years into their relationship and that was all he got on his birthday, he isn't getting anything else from her. So I'm using my interpretation of the series on the characters as starting points for the characters.

Finally, hoped you enjoyed. See you the next update.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: Hello my dear readers. Sorry for the lateness of this update. I didn't realize that it had been this long since the last update to this story. I've been working on a lot of things in the meantime.

Responses to some questions:

Fanfic-Reader-88: That is the exact reason I think as to WHY they haven't. I don't see her giving it up to him with that level of doubt of him.

sugarTown: Differences in interpretation of the show. Add to her trust issues with him and I don't see it happening on her part and I don't see her using it to keep him hook to her.

Jeremy Shane: Thanks.

Challenge King: I think the caring parts are intrinsic qualities for each of them. Jade's just comes off as possessive at times due to her trust issues with Beck. If you see 'The Slap Fight', it outright proves he knows exactly what he is doing with the ladies and he was purposely playing dumb with Jade over the matter.

PD31: Trina is the queen of comedy and Jedi are slowly opening their eyes to something that might be right in front of them.

Twilight Warrior 627: The more I write about them, the more and more I find that I think they would wore so well together and irritate me that there is practically zero interaction of them on screen during the crossover.

I hope you enjoy.

Rating: T

* * *

Chapter 4

Vega Residence  
Friday, September 16, 2011

Jade had settled in a seat on the side of the kitchen table with her back to the kitchen island while Freddie took a seat on her right. She passed him a quick glance as he settled in his seat while he flashed a quick smile to her. She cracked one of her own before realizing she was doing such a thing and just looked to one another for a few moments.

The momentary spell was broken when Tori stomped down the stairs in a hurry and caught the Seattleite's attention. He turned slightly in his seat and called out as he saw Tori walking from the bottom of the stairs and cut through the living room to come to the kitchen, "How's Trina?"

The younger Vega sister blew out a breath and rolled her eyes as she finished walking into the kitchen. "I finally got Trina back in bed. I found her asleep on the toilet."

Freddie sucked in a breath through clenched teeth and put on a sympathetic expression. "Uhh, sorry."

The slim girl blew out a breath and flicked her eyebrows up acknowledging his sympathy as she started picking up the side dishes (rolls, green salad and fried apple slices) for the dinner off the kitchen island and onto the table and answered, "No, it's alright. It's better than having a repeat of when she had her wisdom teeth out."

Mister Vega walked through the door to the garage as he heard Tori's answer with his eyes shooting open and quickly agreed, "No, we don't want that." He gave his wife a quick kiss on the cheek then dodged mother and daughter to take a seat at the end of the table with his back towards the living room where Freddie was on his left.

Freddie cracked a smile as he tried to comment with a tone of levity, "So I take it that it's not one of those 'ha ha' type of funny stories."

Tori quickly answered and took a seat on the other side of the table and directly across from Freddie after setting plates for each of them, "No, it wasn't funny or pretty. I had to look after her."

Jade softly mocked, "With Trina's blood all over her arms."

Freddie made a queasy face then gave Tori a sympathetic expression.

The conversation was cut short when Mrs. Vega scooted between the raven haired girl and brown eyed boy to place the family pot pie in the center of the table. She quickly went about getting glasses and various drinks for them while they politely waited for her to finish and have a seat before cutting the pot pie.

Tori happily announced as she cut a slice for Freddie whom he offered his plate up for her to place it, "You're being treated: we're having family pot pie."

Jade's stomach dropped at the connotation that the meal was reserved for a family setting for the traditional nuclear family, something in which she and her mother didn't share since her father hadn't lived with them for years and now was spending all his free time with his new wife and a yappy dog.

Freddie seemed to laugh it off as Jade caught a quick look of uneasiness on his face, "We certainly are." She realized that she didn't know about his family situation, but guessing it wasn't like the Vegas' either from his facial expression. She didn't get to think further on it as he handed his plate to her and took her empty one.

Tori knotted her brow at the action, but said nothing as she cut another slice for him. The rest quickly cut themselves slices and started on their meals. After chewing a morsel of her food and swallowed it, Tori commented, "Trina's going to be upset that she's missing this."

Holly Vega laughed before digging into her food, "Oh well."

Jade caught a glimpse of Freddie raising a curious eyebrow at the careless attitude she had for her daughter.

Mister Vega smiled to the tech-producer and asked with a cheerful tone that did however carry the faintest of fatherly concern, "I'm not saying we're not happy for the visit, but I still a little curious at it. It's not a holiday or any special occasion for a trip down."

Freddie shrugged a shoulder and answered, "I just needed to get away from it all and when I saw on Tori's Slap page that she was going to be putting on a play, I thought it was a perfect incentive to go ahead and go while getting to see everyone. I'd like to thank you again for letting me stay."

The police detective gave an accepting nod of his head while Mrs. Vega curiously asked, "Would it have anything to do with your girlfriend breaking up with you?"

He gave the Vega Matriarch a hesitant expression which for some reason caused Jade to send a death glare into Mrs. Vega's direction, but Freddie apparently rallied himself and laughed off the question, "You might say my ah… former relationship with Sam is a factor, but not in the way you might think ma'am. She didn't break up with me; I let her tell that story as a courtesy to make her feel better about what was a mutual decision. She wants to keep her image at school and I really don't have a problem with it. Besides, they really wouldn't believe me anyway."

Tori raised an eyebrow and questioned, "Oh? So why did you break up with her?"

Jade tried to suppress a frown (and wasn't sure how successful she was at such a thing) at how eager Tori wanted to dig into the details of the failed relationship and at the sheer disrespect Sam had showed him by spinning a needless tale. She had seen nothing about Freddie that suggested he was some kind of suck-fish jerk that deserved getting his reputation shredded like Tori and Carly's mutual ex Steven or Ryder Daniels (actually the complete opposite from his actions back at her house) when the truth would have sufficed with neither of their reputations damaged.

Freddie let out a soft laugh then answered, "I don't want to go into the details, but long story short, we went into it for the wrong reasons and found that we just don't work that way. She's my friend and I thought why not give her a fair shot? I didn't want to disregard her feelings out of hand and hurt her. You never know, it might have worked out, but it wasn't a good enough reason because we're just not compatible and trying to pretend otherwise was just us fooling ourselves."

Mrs. Vega praised him with a warm smile, "I think that was pretty noble of you Freddie to give her a chance and not bruising her ego. There would be many guys that wouldn't even give the girl a chance and disregard her without a second thought."

"Thank you," he politely answered then quickly sipped on his tea.

Jade bit her tongue to prevent herself from commenting that Sam's ego could use a little bruising along with a few other things.

Tori curiously asked, "Why did she want one? Did she just one day wake up and started liking you?"

Freddie clenched his jaw tightly and softly bit his bottom lip, which wasn't such a good idea with his bruised lip. He cleared his throat and answered, "Yes, one could interpret it that way."

Jade immediately noticed that Tori tried to hide an embarrassed expression as apparently she realized that she may have went too far in her probing about the failed relationship. The green streaked hair girl realized that from their conversations that he hadn't revealed why Sam suddenly wanted a relationship with him. Her mind instantly went into overdrive in thinking as to why would Sam after all her years of mistreatment of him, she'd suddenly become attracted to the handsome, smart, nice, strong, tender… the pale girl cleared her throat and quickly sipped her drink to hide her embarrassment from herself in mentally asking such a stupid question.

Mrs. Vega continued unabated, "Has it made it awkward for you two?"

Freddie took a quick sip from his tea then answered, "No, not really. Nothing has really changed."

Tori curiously asked, "You didn't find some new appreciation for one another?"

Freddie shrugged a shoulder and admitted without thinking, "That would assume she appreciated me in the first place." He looked down at his food and cleared his throat. He muttered out, "Ah… I mean… our relationship for the most part is still the status quo. I'm sorry to say that it turned into a fling, but I think I learned from it and reaffirmed what I want in a girl."

Mrs. Vega eagerly questioned while passing a quick glance towards her youngest daughter, "What kind of girl would you want?"

Jade tried to keep an even expression on her face from the blatant attempt for the tech-producer to consider her daughter.

"Oh you know…" He looked down at his plate as he continued, "…obviously a girl that would care about me and my feelings. She'd support me and wouldn't mock my interests just because she doesn't share them. She'd let me support her in her endeavors and someone that wouldn't take the word 'love' for granted."

Jade gave him a sympathetic expression as she thought about what he meant about supporting one another. She could see at any time that she played a recording of an iCarly episode that he was a supportive guy yet at the same time she could see that he wouldn't be supported. His comment about not taking love for granted as well struck a nerve with her.

Mrs. Vega smiled in apparent approval while Mister Vega asked with fatherly concern while eyeing the teenager, "What interests?"

Freddie softly laughed off, "I'm a geek, a nerd… I'm into audio/visional and web production and computers. I like computer games that most people make fun of, the online RPGs, so… it's not like my hobbies can compete for the girls' attention like being on the football or basketball team. They usually overlook me unless they are a fan of he show then it's an entirely different category."

Jade let out a soft laugh and looked to her as she scooped up another morsel of her pot pie.

He gave her a curious expression while Tori slightly frowned at her sometime nemesis.

The pale girl looked up and was in mid-chew when she saw their expressions. She quickly finishing swallowing that bit of food and placed the fork down her on her plate so she could pat him on the knee under the table and answered, "No, I like video games too. I'm pretty good at them in case you ever want a challenge."

Freddie snorted out a relieving laugh then questioned, "I don't think we're into the same kind of games."

"You never thought about expanding your horizons?" She softly squeezed his knee to accentuate her question and hoped he understood her meaning even if she didn't entirely understand what she meant at the moment.

"Maybe I'll get a chance to take you up on that offer before the weekend is out."

Jade immediately noticed the uncomfortable look on Tori's face while at the same time noticed a slightly disapproving expression on Mrs. Vega's face. The matriarch quickly commented, "Jade, I'm a little surprised that you'd want to stay for dinner. You're not one to come over a lot."

The multitalented student politely smiled as she answered without a hint of expected sarcasm, "I'm not sure if you could hear us while preparing this wonderful meal, but Freddie and I didn't get a chance to catch up since Jet Brew gave him such a bad smoothie."

Mrs. Vega answered with a pleasant voice, but Jade could hear the faintest hint of disapproval in her voice, "Yes. That's horrible Freddie would get sick to the place you decided to go."

Jade held back a biting remark as she suddenly felt Freddie's left arm had slipped under her right arm (as she was still holding on to his left knee) and his hand casually rest on top of her hose covered thigh. Her instincts told her that he was copping a feel, but her rational side realized that it wasn't sexual in nature from his light touch, almost akin when he rested his hands on her breasts and _not_ groping her while paying attention to her stomach. Rational and instinctual battled in her head for a moment as her right leg scooted over towards him where hose met denim, hoping he'd take the invitation to move his hand higher. Her conscious mind realized he was trying to comfort her, but couldn't rest his hand on her knee as her arm was still in the way resting her hand on his knee and trying to rest over her arm could draw the other's attention by the position of his upper arm.

His hand remained in place (her hormones mentally cried out in frustration) as he answered, "That's just a bad break that I got the one lousy batch. I know I would feel just as horrible as Jade if I had took her or Tori to my favorite place, The Groovy Smoothie, and they would get sick." He snorted out a soft laugh, "But I probably wouldn't have been able to get a refund from T-Bo since well… he will cheat his customers when I think about it."

His explanation was apparently satisfying to the two Vega ladies while Mister Vega continued on his meal, quite oblivious at what Jade saw what his wife's intentions were in regards to Freddie and Tori.

The meal eventually wrapped up with just some idle conversation about how Freddie was doing and how the girls were doing so far at the start of the new school year. Once Tori finished the last of her desert and putting her dish into the dishwasher, she commented, "I'll go head upstairs to change and grab some movies."

Freddie stepped up next to the brunette to place his own plate into the washer and replied sparing a glance towards Jade as she offered her plate for him to take, "So what kind of movie are we going to watch? Jade, what are you up for?"

Jade's eyes shot open in surprise at his question while Tori's brow knotted up.

He looked between the girls and his face showed that he had stepped in it. "Sorry, I…" Freddie laughed out nervously as avoided Tori's eyes, "…I assumed she was staying. I just made things awkward."

The brunette gave curious expression to Freddie then to the raven haired girl. Tori finally answered, but with greater hesitation this time than when she agreed to let Jade stay for dinner, "No, it's… it's alright. Jade can stay."

* * *

The Vega parents retired for the night to their room as the teenagers had pushed the couches together to form the complete half circle the couches formed when together so there wouldn't be an awkward separation as they watched the movie. Fortunately it wasn't a big fight on what movie they would be watching as each would get their chance to see their movie of choice: Tori, a romantic comedy (which Jade felt nearly sick on her stomach in having to watch); Freddie, a sci-fi movie and Jade picking a horror movie they would watch off of Webflix.

Trina had woken up from her parents entering the second floor, she insisted in coming down to watch the movie when she found out that Freddie and Tori were downstairs, but that was a futile effort as she quickly had fallen asleep at one end of the couch towards the kitchen.

Since the movie watching was intended to go late into the night, it was decided that Jade was going to have her first sleepover at the Vegas'. The green streaked hair girl didn't have any night clothes to sleep in and didn't want to make a double trip back to her house, so Tori offered her some sweatpants and Freddie offered one of his shirts he brought, a grey Penny Tee he called it with the words _Penny Tease_ printed on the front, as it was big enough to hang loose on her as none of Tori's shirts would probably fit her. She held back her complaints about having to wear something of Tori's, but was quite content in wearing Freddie's shirt.

They could have easily watched the movie in one of girls' rooms, but Mister Vega was still concerned about having the handsome teenager under the same roof as his two daughters for the next two nights. The raven haired girl held back a smirk when she watched the teenager charm the police detective in completely agreeing with his concerns and the appearance of Freddie being in one of the girl's rooms that late. He had played it off cool as he had idly dropped that he had known Carly since he was eleven and they were best friends and even with that, he was never in Carly's room that late at night for modesty's appearance.

Jade had a seat on the left side of the couch to towards the door, Freddie sitting in the center and Tori to his left. The younger sister unfortunately didn't have a comfortable seat as Trina wanted to keep leaning her head on Tor's shoulder or left cross legged thigh.

Jade on the other hand sat quite comfortably next to Freddie, so close in fact that her left knee from her crossed legs was pushed up and rested against his right thigh as they shared the popcorn bowl with the near cliché of their hands occasionally colliding in wanting popcorn at the same time (that's not to say the same thing didn't occur between him and Tori). He apparently didn't seem to mind the closeness, but from the look on Tori's face, she didn't approve.

As the credits rolled on the first movie, Freddie commented and got up, "If you ladies with excuse me for a moment, I need to use the bathroom before we start the next one."

Tori asked with a concerned filled voice, "Not to throw up?"

The brown eyed teenager gave her a reassuring smile and shook his head in the negative. "No, just have to use it."

Once he was out of sight, Tori quickly turned to Jade and questioned while pointing past Jade's shoulders in the direction Freddie disappeared up the stairs. "Why are you staying for a sleepover? You've never wanted to have a sleepover."

"Cat's had plenty of sleepovers with you." She snorted out a laugh, "How many of those times have you put on your Slap page?"

"Yeah Cat and I, not you and me, so what's going on?"

Jade rolled her eyes. "Nothing's going on. _Freddie_ assumed I was staying to watch the movie and _you_ agreed that it was alright knowing that it would be late when it finished and staying for the night was the more logical thing to do than drive that late at night. What? You're afraid of some competition."

Tori put on an outraged expression. "I'm not interested in Fre—"

"You weren't giving him your flirtatious eyes this afternoon? Resting your hand on his arm? Trying to feel up his muscle? Did you forget to do your hair flirtatious toss too?"

Tori gave her a deep frown and a slightly annoyed expression. "I am not flirting with Freddie. I'm just trying to be a good friend after his break up with Sam. Why do you think he's staying here for the weekend?"

Jade raised her pierced eyebrow and asked with a coy tone, "So _you_ invite him to stay over for the weekend?"

"He called up to tell me that he wanted to see the play and wanted to see m—us, so where else was he going to stay?"

"Right…" she toyed with her rival.

"I'm not going to apologize for being nice to Freddie or trying to be a good friend to him."

"Good friend? How well do you know him? A couple of video chats at best over the months?" Jade was sheer guessing at the closeness of the pair as they could have been talking for the last six months without letting know and really could have been good friends, but was hoping her audacity with throw the girl off.

However, the pale girl was surprised when the lovely Latino snapped back, "Better than you."

Jade clenched her teeth then whispered out, "You don't know that."

Tori raised her brow and retorted, "How well did you 'bond' with him while he was throwing up?"

Jade narrowed her gaze on her rival and whispered in a cold voice, "We got to talk before that happened."

"He said you really didn't get to catch up and that's why he wanted you to stay for dinner." Tori raised a challenging eyebrow. "Which is it?"

Jade bit her tongue as Tori had trapped her in a word conundrum: she couldn't dare tell the truth or even a partial truth without making Freddie look bad and underhanded when he was just trying to make her feel included and lying would just prove to Tori that she was correct and had an advantage in a relationship with Freddie. There was an inexplicable feeling that formed in her chest that screamed out that wasn't acceptable and she couldn't allow for such a thing to stand.

She didn't get a chance to formulate a reasonable response as Tori continued in what Jade saw as arrogant self-righteousness, "Is that why you're flirting with him? Hoping to catch up somehow with a little flirting to get his attention since you're a pretty girl and he's kind of vulnerable at the moment?"

Jade raised her pierce eyebrow and ignored the fact that Tori had just admitted that she was pretty. "What?"

Tori crossed her arms under her chest and whispered in muted outrage, "You're flirting with Freddie. You started it as soon as he walked into Lane's office which I don't understand since you can't stand to Beck to let any flirt with him."

Jade mimicked the gesture and sneered at the girl while her brow knotted, "Flirting? What? I just can't be nice to him?"

"You're not nice to _anyone_."

Jade frowned and shook her head. "That's not true. I'm nice to plenty of people… it's just the irritating ones I can't stand and don't have the patience to deal with… like you."

The brunette frowned and narrowed her eyes on the pale girl.

Jade smirked as she answered in a snobbish tone, "André. I'm nice to him."

"So Freddie doesn't irritate you? He's like André?"

The raven girl smirked at she answered, "Yes. He's genuinely a nice guy, not some idiot or pathetic loser. God, it's not like he's Robbie or Sinjin. Isn't that why you're making goggling eyes at him? Have you thought you might be misdirecting your feelings for André onto him?"

Tori snorted out a breath and deeply frowned while she tightened her arms around herself. "I am not into André like that. He's my friend."

"Oh? Really? He's just your friend that you're nearly attached to the hip and that he'd do anything for you?

"Yes he is and he does that because he's just that good a guy. I'm sorry _you_ don't have someone that would care enough about you to stand by you like that." Tori quickly shut her mouth as she appeared to realize that she had crossed a line and directly commented on her friendships and to an extent on Beck's behavior with her or lack of behavior.

Jade was about to unleash on the brunette when a concerned voice called out, "Hey, is everything okay?"

The girls looked towards the bottom of the stairs to see Freddie looking between them with a confused expression then focused on Jade for a few moments. The best Jade could read his expression was one of concern with a little confusion on the side.

Jade saw that Tori was going to answer, but she was just a bit quicker to shout out, "We're fine!"

The pale girl didn't believe she had convinced him of such a thing with his facial expression, but he remained quiet.

The trio retook their seats on the couch as Tori put in another movie. Jade sat just a hair away from Freddie as she had a feeling that since he caught a little bit of her arguing with little miss perfect he wouldn't appreciate the closeness. She was quite surprised that once he retook his seat, he nudged himself over so that they were sitting as close as ever.

Freddie happily called out, "Okay, so whose movie is it next?"

Jade quickly answered, "Yours."

He looked to her and she tried to ignore his concerned expression.

"I got it," Tori commented as she picked up her PearPad off the coffee table and brought up the Scifi movie Freddie wanted to see.

The movie started a few moments later and the trio once again settled into a quiet viewing and sharing popcorn, only interrupted by the occasional snoring from Trina.

About twenty minutes into the film, Jade's phone vibrated on the coffee table and the pale girl quickly picked it up. She looked at the caller ID and blew out an irritated breath. She noticed on the phone's display that she had missed almost a dozen text messages from her actor boyfriend. She quickly answered, "What?" She frowned at hearing his irritated voice.

"Hey… I'm over at Tori's." She paused then answered with a slightly irritated tone, "I'm staying the night." She rolled her eyes at him questioning such a thing as her willing spending the night at Tori's house. She interrupted him on the other end, "The movies we're watching are going to run late and I was invited to stay so I wouldn't have to drive back home that late."

Jade bowed her head and pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration of him starting to try to ferret out some diabolical motive as to why she would be staying at Tori's house. She felt a soft hand on her left shoulder and looked up to see Freddie's concerned expression.

He gave her a soft smile and offered his hand out to Jade in what she saw was his hope that she would hand him the phone. Surprising herself, she did hand the phone over to him. He looked to Jade with a playful smile and gave her a wink then picked up the conversation, "Hey Beck… yeah it's me Freddie. I just wanted to speak to you while Jade had you on the phone. Oh? I'm over here with _her _and Tori." Since his turned his torso to face Jade and his back was turned to Tori, he felt it safe to give Jade a wink with a smirk on his face. "I'm sorry I missed you at Tori's play and you missed dinner with us; Mrs. Vega's a great cook."

Jade remained silent as Freddie nodded along to whatever Beck was saying on the other end of the phone. He let out a soft laugh, "Oh, Jade's been with me or I've been with her, whatever you want to call it after the play. We got over here about three hours ago?" He looked to Jade to see if he got the number correct and she instinctively nodded to show he was in be ballpark for the time.

"Hey Beck, I'd love to talk to you more, but we're in the middle of our movie night and I know the girls are eager to get back to the movie. We'll meet up tomorrow if you're not too busy…" He paused for a moment to look Jade straight in the eyes then finished, "Jade and I haven't decided what _we're_ going to do tomorrow, so give us a call if you're free and we'll work something out."

Jade noticed that Tori's brow instantly furled at hearing Freddie's statement that he and Jade were going to do something tomorrow.

Freddie laughed out softly, "Later." He pressed the end call button and handed the phone to the actress.

Tori quickly asked, "So you two are going out tomorrow?"

Freddie turned back to Tori and playfully answered, "I thought we were all going out to do something. I thought maybe we would meet up with everyone else: Cat, André and Robbie. Obviously when we leave tomorrow Jade's going to be with us and I thought Beck would assume you were included was a given."

Jade smirked as she commented and asked, "I'd like to go out. Anything particular in mind?"

He put on a smooth smile as he answered, "Ladies' choice."

The green streaked girl softly laughed, "Careful Freddie, you don't know what you're getting into with that kind of offer."

He gave her a charming smile as he smoothly answered her, "If anything Seattle has taught me is that maybe I like living a little dangerously."

Jade gave him an inviting smirk.

Tori's mouth became a thin line as she eyed the pair and they turned their attention back to the movie.

Author's Note: Could someone be a little bit jealous? Can someone be a little bit possessive? Oh, Webflix is the Schneiderverse version of Netflix if anyone was wondering. Make sure you tune in on Friday, January 25, 2013 for a new episode of Victorious: Star Spangled Tori


	5. Chapter 5

Hello everyone. I hope everyone has had a pleasant week. I'm glad to get this new chapter out for you.

Victoria and Ariana drama? Not touching it with a ten foot pole.

Twilight Warrior 627: Tori was pretty much hanging on to him in some parts of iPwV, so there might be something to your idea. Why is Beck 'scolding' her? There was no definitive answer as to why they were fighting in the first place in 'Tori Tortures Teacher', but I do know that it may annoy him that she ignored him for hours in their argument since he's become so delusional by 'Brain Squeezers' he believes he's never heard the word 'no' from a girl. It might mess with his ego.

PD31: Girls fighting over Freddie? How… absolutely believable it is in happening. We all know the reason it doesn't happen in iCarly is because Dan was never brave enough to start realistically writing his stories in regards to Freddie as he grew up. Another problem with iCarly need the end: arrested development with the characters.

Whether they're plan succeeds or backfires… only time will tell.

Challenge King: Tori suspicious of Jade? The girl that likes to lightly torment her at times? That's a first on me. Could Tori be jealous? Refer to iPwV and her comfort level with him.

Fanfic-Reader-88: Freddie's been the ladies' man for a while at this point in the iCarly/Victorious timeline. This is set after iPity Nevel and iStart a Fanwar; two episodes where the girls were fighting over him. Ridgeway High School as just put him in 'friend zone' because perceptions never changed with the students since it is a K through 12 school.

I personally think as a reader that Beck was annoyed that as their text fighting had started, she suddenly blew him off for a few hours, so I think you're right. He doesn't like the shoe being on the other foot since I think he enjoys emotionally manipulating Jade for some reason.

Jeremy Shane: Here is more and thanks.

green aura: I wasn't trying for something groundbreaking and awesome, only that I took advantage of the opportunity that Freddie was there in the episode to explore a unique situation for each of them: Freddie coming off the end of his relationship with Sam and Jade about to get into another argument with Beck for no apparent good reason.

Oh so many questions… I'll let the story answer those the best it can.

I think you also touch on something important about it not really being groundbreaking: the pairing is not some epic pairing say like Creddie or Bade. In those pairings, they were meant and destined for one another (Creddie's theme song is about that), but this pairing steams from something far simpler: just trying to be a decent partner to your significant other and both being happy in the process out of one's own freewill choice.

Well, on with the story.

Rating: T

* * *

Chapter 5

Vega Residence

Jade rested on her side on the left side of Tori's bed and looking out the window to the professionally landscaped backyard and pool while trying her best to ignore the brunette lying next to her. They had wrapped up watching movies several hours after Beck's phone call and now she was trying to go to sleep, but her mind turn to those last few hours.

After they have finished watching Freddie's movie, Jade had her turn to show her favorite horror movie, 'The Scissoring' of course. Tori was terrified and tried to grab on to Freddie's muscular arm several times during the course of the film and hide her face behind his muscular shoulder.

Jade had not been reduced to what she saw as amateur and childish tactics in trying to catch Freddie's eyes, not as if she was really trying to do such a thing. She and Beck were only hitting a rough spot and that was it.

She smiled as she recalled that during the film he screamed at the appropriate parts, but more importantly, he laughed at the parts that only she found to be funny. The moment was even sweeter when Tori would look at both of them as if they were insane. The thing that inadvertently brought the biggest smile to her face was as she had actually fallen asleep near the end of the film and her head rested on his shoulder. She chalked it up due to the stresses of the day and that she had seen the film countless times whether than due to boredom. She woke to discover that he had gently held her in place with his strong arm, much to the chagrin of Tori that she had noticed from the corner of her eye past Freddie's muscular chest.

As she thought she was going to fall asleep with some pleasant memories, Tori whispered out to disturb her, "You shouldn't do that to him."

Jade's brow knotted at hearing the voice of the girl she thought was asleep. She whispered out in return, "What?"

The younger Vega sister answered in a surprisingly sharp tone in the sense of being awake at the late hour regardless of how quiet the volume was to her voice, "Lead Freddie on like that. It's wrong Jade… even for you."

Jade rolled over to see that Tori was calmly staring up at the ceiling. The pale girl frowned as she answered with an edge to her voice, "I am not leading Freddie on. You're the one trying to flirt with him."

The playwright's irritation shot up at hearing the continuing calm, almost belittling voice that Tori used while answering and staring up at the ceiling, "If I wanted to flirt with Freddie, there's nothing wrong with that. He's single, I'm single and I'm a nominal friend, but you… just because you and Beck are having a fight doesn't give you the right to play with Freddie while you're on the outs for the moment. Freddie isn't a toy you can play with especially since he's still trying to straighten himself out after Sam. He doesn't need someone playing with him like that. You're the one that is always complaining about Beck letting girls flirt with him and here you're doing it to Freddie. Please don't cross that line Jade."

Jade clenched her teeth tightly for a spilt second and actually contemplated for a moment whether or not to finally strike the girl since the first time she's laid eyes on her. However, she took a calming breath and hiss out coldly, "I am not doing any such thing. I am just being friendly. I am not playing with him and I wouldn't do that to him."

Tori remained silent and Jade snorted out in disgust and rolled over to turn her back on the brunette. She growled out, "What does it matter what I say? You're the one that doesn't think I'm capable of having anyone that would care about me like André does with you. I must be devious gank… you thought I could have sabotaged Trina's harness."

Silence fell between the girls and Jade thought she had won the point with Tori's silence, but she was quite mistaken with the younger Vega sister softly retorting, "I'm sorry."

Jade blinked at hearing the apology. "What?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that to you."

The facially pierced girl frowned at the placating apology. "Yes you did or you wouldn't have said it."

There was a pregnant paused between the girls until Tori continued with a regretful tone, "You're probably right, but I don't think it's a reflection on you… but on Beck, because the rest of us do stand by you."

Jade's brow knotted at hearing her rival take a shot at Beck. However, she pushed away her confusion over that to sharply retort about the end of her statement, "We're not friends."

The raven haired girl couldn't see Tori frowning behind her, but she could hear the irritation in the brunette's voice as she answered, "Yes we are… you're just being stubborn for whatever stupid reasons you're desperate to hold on to. I helped you get back with Beck after you dumped him and he rejected you the first time. When you needed to put on 'Well Wishes', who was the one that made it happen? I did while Beck didn't lift a finger to help you. And when you were upset that you couldn't do the play your way, he was over at my house playing poker, not comforting you or figuring out how to make it better."

Jade was stunned for a moment from hearing the brunette more or less unleash on her boyfriend and calling bullchiz on their frenemy relationship. She rolled back over to face her and asked with an apprehensive tone, "Aren't you being a little harsh on Beck?"

Tori finally turned her head to meet Jade's sharp eyes. There was enough ambient light in the room and their eyes had adjusted to the darkness for them to actually see one another. Tori paused for another few moments before answering in a quiet tone, "I'm just being honest in what I see. He's my friend and I think deep down he's a good guy, but I don't see him as perfect as everyone else might see him. I don't think he's as innocent he tries to play when you two have problems… I see how he hurts you with other girls and doesn't support you when I think he should. Where was he for Steamboat Suzy and for your performance art? I mean before he had to go to Canada for the weekend."

Jade lowered her eyes to avoid her gaze as she didn't have an answer for her and shocked that someone was at least acknowledging that Beck could be at fault with something and not dumping it all on her. She wasn't sure how long she was silent, but it was apparently enough for Tori to respect not pushing her for any kind of response as the brunette rolled back on her back.

After what seemed like an eternity lost in her own thoughts, Jade heard Tori's breath slow and fall asleep. She slipped out of the bed as quietly as possible. Her intention was to just pace for a few minutes and make a run to the bathroom as she was wide awake and felt too anxious to sleep at the moment.

She made her way out of the bedroom and down the hallway several times not caring if she woke up either or both of the Vega sisters. Subconsciously she knew that it was highly doubtful that she could wake up Trina if she had the desire with the medication the older sister was sleeping off.

Jade finally took a trip to the bathroom and was back on her way to Tori's room when she stopped in front of the guest room. The door was slightly cracked open and she couldn't resist looking through the small opening made between the edge of the door and doorframe.

She paused at seeing Freddie apparently sleeping on his side and resting on his left arm with the pillow stuffed between them. She watched him for a few seconds until Freddie calmly whispered with his eyes closed, "You look troubled."

She sucked in a surprised breath at apparently being caught watching him. She realized how creepy it must have been to just watch him sleep like a certain vampire story which he parodied. She glanced away and muttered, "Sorry, I… I was passing by from the bathroom and… I guess I just was peeking in to check on you."

He softly laughed, "That's very sweet."

She slightly frowned at the compliment but wasn't going to argue his point.

He warmly smiled to her and waved for her to enter.

Jade blew out a breath and slowly opened the door to slip inside. She shut the door behind her while Freddie turned on the lamp resting on the neighboring dresser to the bed to his left.

She took a seat on the edge of the bed to his left. She turned to him with her left leg brought up and thigh resting on the bed while he continued to lay and support himself by bracing his left forearm against the bed. The lamp illuminated the immediate area for the pair, but the shadows caused by the shaded and small light source still played on Freddie's face and giving him an ethereal look about him.

She hesitated in speaking and he stared back patiently in return. Her stomach started churning and her fear got the better of her in being honest to his original question, so she shrugged a shoulder and casually commented, "This is a comfortable shirt."

He smirked as he gave her an acknowledging nod. "I'm glad you like it. I have some smaller ones I kind of outgrew that would fit you a little better… rehab and all. I could send them to you after I get home."

She raised an eyebrow, slightly toying with him as she playfully questioned, "You like me wearing your shirts?"

He slightly bowed his head and avoided her gaze as he ran his tongue inside his bottom lip. He looked up a second later and answered with a surprisingly confident tone, "I'm just pointing out that you could get more use out of them than I could and they'd look better on you than me. There isn't anything deeper than that."

She whispered out in a seductive tone, "Right…"

The pair stared at one another for another moment until they let out a soft laugh together. The laughed for a few moments until each settled their breaths and looked upon each other again.

Apparently Freddie's patience finally ran out as he softly asked, "What's wrong?"

She pursed her lips for a moment then answered, "Tori noticed that we… I was flirting with you and you were responding. She kind of called me out on it. She thinks I'm taking advantage you after Sam."

Freddie sat up in bed and slightly frowned. He glanced downward, which landed on the writing of the shirt across her chest, but quickly diverted his eyes away. He muttered out with a regret filled tone, "It was supposed to look like I was the one flirting with you… I was supposed to look like the potential bad guy, not you looking like…" She saw him softly bite his bottom lip as if he was trying to purposely punish himself.

He looked back up and stared at her with a determined look in his brown eyes. "We can stop this 'plan' right now. I don't want people to look at you like you're doing something wrong."

She quickly shook her head. "No, I have to see how Beck reacts. I need…"

He softly finished for her, "You need to know that he really wants and needs you?"

She gave a quick nod of her head. That is what she was telling herself: that she wanted to keep a charade up so Beck could see and see his reaction and no other reason, but it gnawed at her. She held her tongue that Tori admitted that she could be interested in Freddie and felt a momentary pang of guilt that she could be putting an opportunity for Freddie with Tori on hold to try some stupid plan to test how much Beck loved her.

The softness of his eyes easily swept that feeling aside.

She spoke with a hesitant, soft tone, "Shouldn't I know that already?"

He gave her an apprehensive smile as he questioned, "Maybe we don't know what a person will do when push comes to shove until it actually happens?"

"But I've been with him for three years and three months. Did it take that long for Carly to realize that with you?"

He bowed his head and Jade instantly felt a sharp pain slice through her at seeing his mournful reaction, more so than that time she accidentally cut a finger on a new pair of scissors she bought one time.

There was a dreaded weightiness to his voice as he answered, "I jumped in front of a truck to save her life and I don't think she has ever realized it."

Jade frown as that hurt and not just because it wasn't helping with her situation with Beck.

He softly continued, "We dated for a few days after that, but… with some dubious intended advice from Sam, I broke it off. I didn't want her to date me for just saving her life, but for me. I wanted her feelings for me to be true, so we broke up on the condition that once I healed up and we put some distance between what happened so she could let the hero-worship wear off, that I would be thrilled to be with her, but… it didn't work out that way."

The pale girl was actually afraid to ask. Jade West was actually afraid to ask, but did anyway after a swallow and soft shake of her head, "How did it work out?"

"She started dating Steven Carson… no conversation, no straight telling me no, nothing, just started dating him… almost to the day a year later after we broke up. I meant that little to her… she couldn't give me that consideration of telling me no, but letting me know loud and clear by dating him."

She took in a sharp breath as the word 'cold' was the first word that popped into her head at hearing the explanation. Whatever sympathy she had felt for Carly for Steven two timing her went straight out the preverbal window at hearing what she thought was such a lack of decency on the web-celebrity's part.

The brown eyed teenager shook his head and let out a tired breath, but not due to the length of the day. "I'm sorry to say that and I know it doesn't help with the situation, but lying to you wasn't going to help… or make you think better of me."

She bowed her head and muttered out, "I ah… I appreciate the truth. I'm just sorry how much that must hurt to bring up."

He let out a soft, ironic laugh, "I've done that a lot over the last couple of hours with you haven't I?"

Jade closed her mouth tightly and turned her head completely away from him to look in the opposite direction. She could hear him clearing his throat and corrected, "I mean… it may hurt, but thanks for listening. I'm trying to help you and you keep helping me by listening."

The pale teenager slowly turned her head to look towards him and her breath caught when she saw his grateful eyes. She uttered without any conscious thought, "I'm sorry."

He cracked a smile and it sent a shiver through her at how affectionate the simple gesture could be towards her. He continued with a tender tone, "I appreciate the sympathy. I really do. It helps to know that someone cares."

She looked to him with a mix of curiosity and bewilderment. She really did care about him. She had interacted with him for less than twenty-four hours in total since Kenan's party, but she realized it was the truth. She wasn't sure if it was because she let all her walls crumble and let him see her or he had opened up and let her see him. Either way, she couldn't deny that truth and more importantly, she didn't want to deny it.

She nodded her head then quickly bit her bottom lip before continuing, "You're welcome… there's something else that Tori said that got me thinking… would you support me?"

Freddie knotted his brow. "Support you? I don't understand."

She nodded her head to the side and softly questioned, "Hypothetically, if you were my… _boyfriend_… would you support me? I know it's kind of a silly question with all you've done to support Carly over the years but—"

He caught her attention by resting his hand on top of her hand lying on her knee.

She looked up and saw a tender expression on his face. He answered with an almost caressing tone, "I would choose your side in the argument and I wouldn't be the bad guy in doing it, because you'd be my girlfriend. You stand by your girlfriend."

She parted her lips and tried to speak, but there was a hesitation to form words. After several seconds, she was finally able to ask with a hushed tone, "Even if I was the one in the wrong?"

He cracked a soft smile. "I would hope that I could guide you to doing the right thing as I stood by your side, because I'd want what's best for you and not get hurt, but I wouldn't attempt to force you to do anything."

She cracked a soft smile. "So even then you'd be thinking of me first?"

He cracked a bigger smile. "Yes."

The peaceful, comfortable silence fell between the pair.

Freddie quietly asked, "What was the bathroom? I mean here, not in the coffee shop."

She tired not to give him a bashful expression, but she knew she wasn't entirely successful as she answered, "Honestly, I'm not sure which one leaned in first, but it… we were caught in the moment…" She paused as she saw the look in his eyes. "…like this one…" She cupped his check and softly captured his lips. Her other arm slipped around the back of his neck and she deepened the kiss.

His hand slipped under the hem of his shirt on her and gently massaged her left side just above her hip.

They pulled apart moments, seconds, maybe minutes later, neither was sure, each gave the other a confused and apprehensive expression as they caught their respective breaths. She stared into warm brown eyes and she could only guess what he saw in her crisp bluish/green eyes. He rested his hands on her hips to steady her as she rested her hands on his shoulders. The pale girl was the first one to speak in a whispered barely above the sound of her rapid heartbeat. "We're starting to blur this line, aren't we?"

"It's just an act for Beck, right?"

"Yeah, just an act," she whispered with a broken voice.

He gave her a look that suggested that he wasn't convinced with her answer.

She parted her lips to speak. She didn't consciously know what she was going to say, but she tried anyway. However, Freddie was faster in speaking and whispered, "You're not taking advantage of me and you're not leading me on."

She bowed her head and regretfully uttered, "Did I cross a line?"

He softly shook his head and whispered, "No."

She was the one not convince this time, but she didn't get the chance to voice her opinion as he pulled her into his lap and held her close while her head naturally used his right shoulder as a pillow.

"Please don't argue; I think you need this. I think you just need… you need to know that someone cares."

She took his advice and didn't argue as she closed her eyes and just enjoyed his comforting embrace.

Vega Residence  
Saturday, September 17, 2011

Jade blinked her eyes open with the sunlight filtering through the blinds and onto her face. She sat up in the bed and had a sense of worry shoot through her. She glanced around and saw that she was back in Tori's room, but she didn't remember walking back yet she was resting in the bed of her rival.

Just as she was trying to figure out how she got back, Tori walked inside with a fluffy pink robe on and an equally pink towel wrapped around her hair.

The pale girl swallowed down her apprehension as showing Tori any weakness in the situation was not an option. However, that didn't stop her from giving the brunette an awkward stare.

The younger Vega sister was the first one to break the potential stalemate as apparently she did pick up on the confusion being displayed from her classmate's eyes, "You were talking to Freddie and you fell asleep in the middle of your conversation, so he brought you back here."

Jade cleared her throat as she looked way from the brunette's gaze. "I ah—"

Tori gave her at what she best could describe as a nonjudgmental expression if not one of outright concern. "He said the conversation was private and left it at that. I wouldn't pry."

Jade cleared her throat and nodded her head as that was another point she had no intention of arguing against.

The younger Vega sister spoke up, "The shower's yours if you want to go ahead and take one. I'm going to go ahead and get dressed then head downstairs and fix us a light breakfast. We're meeting everyone for brunch."

Jade looked up with a questioning expression. "Everyone?"

Tori parted her lips, but paused in her answering. She licked her lips then answered, "I left a voicemail, but I haven't heard from Beck."

The pale girl nodded her head, unsure of what that meant, but she didn't dwell on it. She snapped her gave up and quickly announced, "You need to get dressed." She jumped up and exited the bedroom without another word.

Tori called out, "Everything you need is in there."

* * *

About twenty minutes later, Jade trotted down the stairs and towards the kitchen. She had dried and dressed back into her skirt, leggings and boots, but instead of her grey shirt (which was draped over her right arm) she was wearing a different Penny-Tee than the one she had slept in during the night. She had slipped into Freddie's room and dug through his luggage to steal another one of his Penny-Tees after she had finished showering. It was printed with the words 'Fried Clown'.

Jade forced an even expression on her face as she was not going to show any sign of guilt or any other emotion to Tori in front of Freddie as a sign of something inappropriate happened between the pair last night. That didn't last long as from his seat at the kitchen table, Freddie flashed her confident smile to her, causing her to break into a soft smile in return to the handsome tech-producer.

She wasn't sure if he was continuing to put up an act for Tori to show that last night wasn't any big deal after he had to have confronted the brunette when taking her back to Tori's room or he was just genuinely happy to see her. A momentary ping of regret shot through her at thinking he would be disingenuous to her after yesterday, so she wholeheartedly embraced the idea that he was happy to see her.

She stopped at the end of the kitchen table and quickly covered the guilt by rapidly explaining, "Sorry, but I needed another shirt to wear home."

He gave her a boyish grin and nodded his head. "It's fine. Why don't you have a seat?" He motioned towards the spot on his left where a bowl of cereal, some toast, a glass of orange juice and a mug of coffee were set on the table.

Jade looked up in surprise as Tori had a seat on the opposite of the table and started on her cereal.

"A light breakfast," Tori explained with a smile. "Since we stayed up so late and got up late, no sense of having a heavy breakfast and miss out on eating with the rest."

Jade gave a soft flick of her brow acknowledging the point then had a seat between the brunette pair. She took a quick sip of coffee and let a smile form on her face from the richness of the coffee. She couldn't deny that apparently the Vegas had good taste in coffee and didn't bother with the cheap stuff.

The Seattle native happily asked, "So what's the plan for today?"

Tori answered after a sip of her orange juice, "We're meeting everyone at the mall for brunch then browse through the shops or vice versa depending on when everyone wants to eat. We'll just take it from there: maybe a movie or show you the usual sites people want to see when their in L.A."

Freddie softly nudged Jade and finished Tori's point with a smile, "Maybe some of the _un_usual sites. You're the L.A. natives; you have to know the places that the average tourist doesn't get to see."

Jade raised her pierced eyebrow and softly challenged, "Oh? I have a place or two I think you might get a kick out of… assuming you can handle it…"

Freddie softly chuckled, "How can I turn down a challenge?"

The pair shared a soft laugh then turned back to their light breakfast. The trio continued their breakfast in a relatively quiet manner. Jade felt a bit silly as if she was a childish middle school girl stealing glances at Freddie as they ate. She surprised a smile the once or twice he caught her and flashed her a smile. It was just friendly banter between the pair she told herself even if a part of her realized that Tori had started watching the pair like a hawk.

Once the pale actress finished her breakfast, she got up from her seat. She unceremoniously announced, "If we're going to be spending the day out, I need to make a quick run to my house to change. As much as I like this skirt, I don't want to wear it two days in a row; it might be odd."

The tech-producer gave a charming smile as he playfully commented, "I don't know, it looks rather cute on you."

She coyly smiled at him as she returned with a flirtatious tone, "So you like the skirt and me wearing your shirts?"

Freddie's smile turned into a smirk as he responded, "Isn't that the point of wearing that skirt and haven't I already explained about the shirt?"

Jade narrowed her eyes on the muscular teenager and quickly ran her tongue over the front of her top teeth. She softly shook her head then started on her way to the front door.

Tori's eyes shot open and closed her mouth tightly shut at the blatant flirting between the pair.

Freddie got up from his seat and Tori quickly joined him to follow Jade to the middle of the living room. He called out just as Jade reached the front door, "So we'll meet you at the mall?"

She glanced over her shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile as she answered, "Yeah."

Jade heard almost desperation in Freddie's tone for her to confirm his question, "So we'll see you in about an hour?"

A corner of her mouth lifted as she answered with a reassuring tone, "Yeah, I'll see you in an hour: a few minutes to get back home, change and drive to the mall."

He nodded his head and gave her a bashful smile. "I'll be waiting."

She turned and exited the home with only keeping Freddie's smile on her mind and ignoring Tori's concerned expression.

* * *

Author's Note: Okay, things are getting even more complicated for our characters with some emotional and character development all around. I'm particularly proud of Tori calling Jade out on what they really are to one another and I hope you enjoyed it too. Later.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note: Hello everyone. Sorry for taking so long for this chapter, got busy with well, life and other stories. I hope you enjoy this next installment.

Challenge King: I wanted to just cut through the mess and actually commit to the plainly obvious that they are friends even with a strained relationship at times and that they wouldn't necessarily side with Beck as they did by default in the worst couple. The conversation between Jade and Freddie was done on purpose that way, but I'll let the story tell it.

Fanfic-Reader-88: Matters of the heart are rarely predictable. I had Tori point it out because I never saw her being blinded by Beck's good looks to see his actions towards Jade. Why Jade won't admit they're friends as you know I have covered in depth with my Jade/Freddie Trilogy with anger of being constantly over looked for Tori and fear of losing Beck to her being a number of reasons.

hanahanimon: Thank you, I thought it was about time that Tori just stop letting Jade live in her own little world about their relationship. It was sad all the way to the end of the series that Dan kept that in the story by always, ALWAYS hitting the reset button with them the following episode.

PD31: Well yeah, that line is certainly blurred for them with poor Tori trying to be loyal while possibly missing out on her chance with Freddie. What is it with L.A. girls having better taste in guys then the ones in Seattle? Now we will get to the beginning of Beck's reaction.

Jeremy Shane: Thanks and here is the next chapter.

Twilight Warrior 627: Thanks. I never took Tori to be as blind as the others with Beck's behavior because she's spent the most time with Jade other than Cat and has seen her layers instead of just the 'mean girl'. That line is completely blurred so…

green aura: What I meant by Creddie was always meant to be was they were intended to be together as the original plan of the show as each was set up for the archetype hookup, but at the last moment, Dan scrapped a scripted kiss in 'iSpeed Date' because the reason for breaking them up in 'iSaved Your Life' would have been ridiculous on its face and at that time they didn't know they were going to get a forth season. This might offend some people, but the truth is that Seddie only happened because Dan deluded himself into thinking they represent this vast majority of fans when in fact they were a small, vocal minority and that by listening to them he crashed not only iCarly into the ground, but lost Victorious in the process as well. There you have it, the root cause of the Victorious cancellation can be traced to Seddie.

Sometimes you have to state the blindly obvious as the only ones that really should have a say in your relationship is the couple themselves barring of course illegalities in age differences and abuse.

What is truly Jade and Freddie's deal? I'm not sure they even know yet, but keep reading to find out.

pbow: As a reader, I would think Freddie was just wanting to make sure Jade was enjoying herself and putting her needs first. Oh my God, a harem story? What is this? Old school Harry Potter trope? I haven't see someone play with that in ages :P If by some wild imagination it somehow turned into that (minus Holly of course), you know Freddie would take care of them all. Well, let's see how it goes.

Rating: T Language

* * *

Chapter 6

Food Courtyard  
The Green Meadow Mall  
Los Angeles, CA

Jade could feel a nervous step in her stride as she cut through the mall to meet with her 'friends' at the mall's food courtyard. The nervousness led to annoyance as she couldn't figure out why she should be nervous. She was just going out to meet up to eat and hang out as she had done dozens of times before, not including lunches.

She knew her nervousness wasn't caused by the way she looked (or maybe she was lying to herself), because she knew and felt hot in her attire. She had went home to change, well partially anyway as she was still wearing Freddie's Penny-T. She had thought about a number of other shirts she could have worn, but there was something she couldn't place as to why she wanted to keep wearing it. Maybe it was due to how comfortable it felt on her skin or maybe it was because the shirt carried Freddie's scent and she didn't want to part with it for some unfathomable reason to her for a moment.

She had grabbed her black leather jacket for the surprisingly chilly September day and the fact that it looked on good on her without having to worry about sweating if the temperature heated up.

She had completed her outfit by changing into her second favorite skirt: her NYC Militia Mini Skirt. It was just as short as the other one she had worn yesterday, but of a heavier material with a studded belt and two traps over the pleats, one for each leg. She wouldn't openly admit it, but she may have subconsciously wanted to give the muscular teenager easy access as her other favorite skirt gave him in case something happened between them.

She finally reached the busy food court and quickly saw that Freddie, Tori, André and Cat were already having a seat at a table. Freddie smiled brightly at seeing the pale actress and waved her over.

She cracked a soft smile at the gesture and quickly walked over. She suppressed her smile from growing and a warm flush on her cheeks as he actually got up from his seat to meet her.

He glanced down at his phone and commented, "Fifty-four minutes."

A bit of nervously slipped into her laughter, "I didn't want to keep you waiting."

He smiled back as he slipped the phone back into his pocket then stole a chair from another table and placed the seat to the left of his seat.

She graciously took the seat and the tech-producer retook his seat. She gave a quick glance to the empty table and stated the obvious, but with a hint of sarcasm lacing her voice to make sure they wouldn't question her action and to elicit and explanation, "I see you haven't ordered."

The L.A. visitor quickly answered with a hint of a smile, "We were waiting for you."

The redhead at the table laughed out, "I thought it was sweet."

Tori raised a curious eyebrow towards Cat as Jade passed her shorter friend a quick glance with a soft smile. The raven haired girl softly laughed, "What do expect Cat?" She looked to Freddie to finished, "He's a sweet boy."

Cat let out a soft giggle while Tori apparently tried to suppress a worried expression. André noticed Tori's expression and put on a curious expression as he apparently realized he was out of the loop. Jade pointedly ignored both looks as she was enjoying the reactions she wanted out of them and hopefully the same from Beck.

Freddie cracked a bigger grin at the compliment then suggested, "Why don't we rotate out to get our food so no one can steal our table if we're all up?"

Tori nodded her head at the suggestion and André joined her as the brunette got up from her seat. Cat immediately stood up from her seat and followed the pair to one of the various establishments in the court.

Jade caught sight of Tori glancing over her shoulder to see the unlikely pairing remaining in their respective seats. The green streaked hair girl lifted a corner of her mouth then looked to Freddie as he began to speak with a soft laugh while relaxing in his seat, "You really like my shirt?"

She narrowed her eyes in a teasing manner and answered in a toying manner, "It's comfortable."

He smirked and shook his head and for a brief moment, she wondered, almost desperately, what exactly what he was thinking. He looked back to her and spoke, "André texted Beck and said he's on his way…" He lowered his voice and offered, "We can still back out right now if you want to."

Her smile slightly faltered and there was a slight tremor ran through her voice as she questioned, "Do you?"

Freddie lost his smile and answered with complete conviction in his voice, "I'm in this to the end however _you_ want to play it out. Back out or go forward, it is completely up to you and I'll support you."

She nodded her head and glanced sideways to the table as she answered with a hushed, but thankful tone, "Thanks." She took a deep breath and looked up at him with a confident smile. "Let's go through with this. I need to know either way."

He nodded his head then the pair quietly sat together to wait for the others to return. She slipped her right hand under the table for a moment and squeezed his left knee. She wasn't exactly sure why she did it, perhaps for her own rallying her nerves to go through with her plan, but he didn't object or say anything about the action.

A few minutes later, the others returned and the pair went on their way to grab their brunch. They had decided to swing by the Taco Guapo station with Jade getting a wrap and Freddie two tacos. The Seattleite made it a point with a slightly raised voice, but not too high to be a disturbance or be too much out of the ordinary, to pay for her meal which drew the attention of Tori and André.

The dark headed duo retook their seats and began eating. Jade was aware of, but ignored the curious stare Tori was directing in her and Freddie's direction while the tech-producer sat next to her. She was also aware that that the brunette shared a quick glance with André for Freddie resting his arm on the top of the backrest of her chair.

The raven haired teenager playfully asked her songsmith friend, "So how was your _date_?"

André slightly frowned and relaxed back in his seat.

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow. He let out a good natured laugh as he questioned, "Date? So that's why you were in such a rush?" He softly laughed, "You nearly knocked me over to get to the exit."

The songwriter gave an ironic grin and nodded his head before lamely admitting to Jade, "Not the best I could hope for."

The green streaked hair girl raised an eyebrow. "So you didn't have a good time?"

André regretfully answered, "The language barrier was harder than I thought when we were trying to get to know one another as conversational English wasn't enough."

Jade flicked her eyebrows up and snorted out a laugh with her comment, "That'll kill an afternoon."

Freddie chuckled as he pointed out, "If talking is what you're really interested in during the date."

Everyone gave him a surprised expression for making such a suggestion.

The brown eye boy tilted his head slightly to the side and softly laughed, "I'm joking. A date's not a date unless you can talk with the girl. Anything else is just hooking up with a girl and where's the fun in that?"

André raised an eyebrow and put on a disbelieving expression as he retorted, "You don't see the fun in that?"

Freddie answered as he looked at his drink for a second before taking a sip, "Maybe, but without any depth to it, there's no point. I've seen… how hollow it can be, especially if you're trying to fool yourself while forcing something that isn't there."

Jade and Tori each gave him a sympathetic expression, but the raven haired girl knew she had the deeper level of understanding than Tori by having the entire story. However, she was quickly surprised when Tori spoke up and directly a hint of a disapproving look to Freddie, "You're right, just hooking up with a girl isn't worth it especially if she's in a complicated situation."

The pale girl naturally wanted to frown at the reminder from the brunette of what she saw or thought she saw in regards to the behavior her and Freddie were sharing, but kept at the forefront of her mind that was the exact reaction she was hoping for in Beck. She was actually glad that it was so apparently obvious to Tori and André and reassured her that their plan might work.

Freddie snorted out a laugh, apparently ignoring the mixed message expression on her face, "Thanks, I'm glad I have people that agree with me… you don't know how rare that is." He took a breath to calm his breath from laughing then asked with a concerned tone, "Do you have any idea when you'll have another chance to do your play?"

Tori shook her head just before she was going to take a bite from her burger. "I don't know. Mister Allen didn't discuss it with me because of us having to talk to Lane."

"Well, I'm sure it'll be great. If Trina's not well enough to do it, I'm sure Cat would be great for the role or Jade. Just make sure you film it so I can see it later. I could always put it up on iCarly so people could see it."

Jade turned in her seat to look at the muscular teenager and made sure resting more against his arm behind her as she questioned with a coy tone, "So if we send videos to you, you'll start hosting them for all your fans to watch?"

Freddie smiled as he replied, "We already link to your Slap pages, but I'll put anything up that _you_ send me."

Jade did her near trademark motion of running her tongue over the front of her top teeth and partially sticking it out for the briefest of moments as a large grin formed on her face at him really playing up his part. He grinned in return as what she took as him knowing exactly what he was doing. She caught from the corner of her left eye the near horrified expressions on Tori and André's faces as they took what he said as outright flirting with Jade.

The pair continued to look at one another for a few more moment, to keep up the act of course Jade told herself, until Cat shouted out and started waving her arms in the air, "Beck! We're over here!"

The raven haired girl and the brown eye boy turned their heads at the same time to look over his left arm/shoulder resting on her chair so that their cheeks were just inches apart.

Beck had his hands stuffed in his jean pockets as he casually walked to the table. He walked around to the other side of the table as the others quickly greeted him in turn. Before either Jade or Freddie could say a word, Beck gave Jade a curious expression as he saw the grey Penny-T shirt with the yellow print of 'Fried Clowns'. She figured that he knew what the T-shirt was as he was a fan of iCarly and had to have seen them wear the shirt several times so that would explained his immediate expression.

Freddie stood up from his seat and gave Beck a bright smile as he greeted the slightly taller teenager, "Hey Beck."

Beck let out an awkward chuckle as he answered, "Hi."

The tech-producer stole another chair and handed it to the taller teenager so he could pick a spot at the table as it looked like Freddie had no intention of moving from his spot next to Jade.

The long haired actor took the seat to the other side of the table between Tori and Cat and reluctantly sat down.

Freddie retook his seat and immediately put his arm back over the top of the backrest of the chair, drawing a raised eyebrow from Beck. The tech-producer questioned, "Sorry, we went ahead and got started eating since Tori, Jade and I had a small breakfast."

Beck shook his head and almost robotically answered, "It's fine. I slept in then had a really big breakfast."

Freddie nodded in acceptance of the answer then took another bite out of his taco with one hand while keeping his arm around Jade.

Jade could see that Beck struggled to wear a relaxed expression as he questioned Freddie by motioning his head towards Jade, "Did you bring Penny-Tees as gifts?"

Cat cheerfully spoke up to Jade, "Yeah, I've been meaning to ask about why you're wearing one. I think they're so cute."

The pale teenager was quick to speak up with a blatant happiness filling her voice, "Oh no, I'm borrowing it from Freddie. I needed another shirt to go home in to change after last night, but I just found this so comfortable, I kept it on."

Beck slightly frowned and she suppressed a smirk at seeing the expression of her being comfortable wearing another man's shirt. She had been known to wear his flannel patter shirts at school, but most were actually her own without the others seeming to realize that they wouldn't fit Beck.

"No I don't have any as gifts, but I can send some down after I get back to Seattle. Just tell me what sayings you want and I can get them. Spencer's best friends with Penny's brother Socko, so I can get a fantastic deal or just make them for you."

Beck cautiously asked, "Like you did a while ago when you said you were raising money for Sam's 'legal defense fund'?"

Freddie took a quick sip from his drink then answered, "Yeah, that was fun… until Sam decided instead of helping, she would hire kids to do her part of the work and put them in a sweatshop conditions."

The others started laughing as they thought it was a joke, but Jade knotted her brow as she believed him after everything he had told her yesterday.

Freddie shook his head and answered with a disgust laced voice, "I'm not joking."

The rest immediately lost their laughter and smiles.

He continued, "We were raising money for her to bail her out the next time she was arrested because Spencer told us that Colonel Shay was sick of them spending his money to bail her out, so… we had to come up with alternative ways to raise money. Penny, she's the one that owns Penny-Tees is the sister of Spencer's best friend, Socko as I mentioned, so she let us make the shirts under license. We were swamped, but we were going to be able to make them all until Sam decided to use near slave labor to do it."

He shook his head and took another sip of his drink to wet his mouth.

Beck picked up, "Is that why those kids started making their own—"

Freddie nodded along, "Yes and which Penny quickly shutdown by suing their parents. They thought they were going to get the last laugh by saying you can't sue nine year olds, but you can sue their parents," Freddie finished with a laugh. "Carly and I acted nice to them, but then they quit when we paid them in advance. Penny got our money back too."

"Does that include Jade or…" Beck looked to Jade and asked with a slight frown, "…is she you keeping that shirt as her present?"

Freddie was quicker to answer than anything Jade could come up with, "She can have it if she wants it. I'm going to send her some other ones I outgrown from all the rehab I had to go through after my accident."

The longer haired teenager immediately frowned.

Tori whispered out while to Jade's ears, she was trying to sound casual, "That's… very nice of you Freddie."

The Seattleite immediately turned to the brunette and nonchalantly asked, "Do you want one?" He looked to Cat. "I can send you one of my old ones."

The red laughed and nodded her head. "Can I have one that you wore on the show?"

He softly laughed, "Sure, I will double check some of our old shows and make sure I pick the right one."

The long haired actor casually commented, "Speaking of videos, I saw an interesting one last night."

Tori licked her fingers from the salt off of her French fries and eagerly asked, "Oh?"

"Yeah…" He looked directly to into Freddie's eyes and finished with an obvious false sense of friendliness, "It was Freddie and Jade walking out of the men's restroom together at Jet Brew. Some girls got it on their camera phone."

Tori frowned and sucked in a sharp breath through her nose while André blinked in confusion and looked between his pale friend and Freddie.

The tech-producer cracked a smile then started laughing while softly shaking his head.

Beck knotted his brow as Freddie took a breath the calm down then replied with a lingering laugh in his voice, "Funny story… okay it's funny _now_, but not when it happened."

The actor questioned with a strained voice, "Care to share?"

"Of course," the brown eyed boy laughed out.

Jade held back a smirk at seeing that her boyfriend may have been fooling the rest of them, but she could tell under his mask that he was becoming quite annoyed at how casual Freddie was being in regards to everything.

"After we left school, we went out to Jet Brew to get a coffee and a smoothie, but I got a bad smoothie and I ended up being sick in the bathroom." He laughed out, "It was not pretty, trust me on that." He looked to the green streaked hair girl and finished, "I was lucky I didn't get any on Jade as she was a Godsend for helping me pull my head from over the toilet." He looked to Beck and softly smirked as he complimented, "Beck, you're a lucky guy having such a sweet girl. You got to be careful; someone might snatch her up when you're not looking."

Beck sat up in his seat and put on an even expression. Tori bowed her head and took a sip from her drink while Cat remained oblivious eating her food.

The raven haired girl suppressed the grin that threatened to form on her face at the appreciation of Freddie laying it on thick. Saying that other guys would be interested in her apparently got his attention.

André snorted out a laugh.

Everyone looked to him with various confused and curious expression.

The songsmith laughed, "It's not exactly the way I would describe…" He stopped when he saw Jade directing an annoyed expression in his direction. "Never mind," he mumbled out then looked down at his food.

"That's exactly how I would describe her from what I've seen and…" He turned to look Beck straight in the eyes and finished with a boyish, almost taunting grin, "…wouldn't you agree Beck?"

The others waited in silence as Beck stared in return to the more muscular teenager. He whispered out with a strained voice, "Of course I would agree."

Freddie chuckled then looked back to his pale co-conspirator. "So, after we're done with brunch, what was that unusual place you wanted to take me?"

Jade cracked a smile and whispered in a low tone, "You really want to know?"

André warned, "Freddie, that may not be such a good idea to ask. You may not like what my twisted sister has in mind, because well… it could be twisted."

Freddie looked back to Jade with a soft smirk on his face as he replied, "Oh I know I'm in good hands with Jade. She won't steer me wrong."

She grinned at seeing their worried expressions from the corner of her eye and answered, "If you really want to see the unusual that the tourists don't usually see and I have just the place in mind."

* * *

About an hour and half after finishing their meal then taking some time to let Freddie browse some of the stores in the mall, Jade led the way down the metal staircase of the underground club with the noticeable distinction of her holding his hand. Really he was holding hers as he was the one that took it halfway through their trek.

The group of friends and guest stopped at the center landing of the stairs and glanced across the wide open area of the club dotted lightly with about two dozen teenagers as it was only mid-day on a Saturday. Jade knew the crowd would pick up in the evening, but she was glad for the slacked crowd. She didn't want them to be swamped if any recognized Freddie.

There were swinging balls metal balls setup as some kind of gauntlet, further down a mechanical bull setup but dressed up as a bunny and further down was a cordoned off area with various crates and a rope webbing leading almost to the ceiling.

Jade smirked as she introduced the place, "Welcome boys and girls to the Gorilla Club."

Beck shook his head and questioned in disbelief and a hint of disgust in his voice, "Really? This is the place you thought of?"

The pale actress looked over her shoulder at her boyfriend and answered without any regret, "Freddie wanted something unusual to see that wasn't just where the tourists go and this is just the place. Besides…" She glanced to Tori looking around fearfully in their surroundings. "It was about time for us to take Tori too."

The reserved teenager, contrary to what he may have publicly said, shook his head and followed the rest as Jade led them down the rest of the stairs.

Tori swallowed nervously, but Freddie reached over with his free hand to give one of hers a reassuring squeeze. The brunette gave him a thankful smile then the group started their way down.

They were met by at bald headed, bearded heavyset gentleman with a slightly annoyed expression. "Sign these," he instructed as he handed the teenagers individual clipboards.

Tori asked with a worried tone as she took the clipboard, "Why do we have to sign these?"

Jade quickly answered, "It's to get them off the hook for liability in case you try out any of the games and end up… dead."

The brunette blinked and swallowed down her fear while looking to Jade then whispered to the bald headed man, "Do people get hurt here a lot?"

"A lot?" he asked for clarification as he gave her a hint of a disbelieving expression underneath his annoyance.

"Yeah?" Tori questioned while finishing signing the form.

"Yeah," he responded with a bit of snide in his voice as he took André, Cat and Freddie's clipboards.

"Eww! Bunny!" Cat shouted for glee as the mechanical bull riding machine caught her eye. She grabbed a hold of André's sleeve then started dragging him along with her.

Jade watched as Freddie glanced around the various attractions. He pointed to the gauntlet of swinging metal balls and questioned, "What's that?"

The long haired quickly answered with a concerned filled voice, "They're called 'The Balls of Pain' and when they hit you, they hurt… a lot."

Freddie smirked as he watched someone get knocked off and the audience threw peanut shells at him. "I think I'll try it."

The taller rested what looked like a concerned hand on Freddie's upper arm as he explained, "Freddie, they really do hurt."

The more muscular teenager shrugged a shoulder and pointed out, "You have to live a little."

Freddie made his way to the end of the platform.

The operator quickly explained the rules about running across at least twice to get three rings within the time span of ten seconds. Freddie nodded his head and replied, "Okay, I'm ready."

The operator pulled the switch to get the balls going then the clock started a moment later.

Freddie watched for a moment, apparently trying to judge the interval of the swings. He started his attempted, but the third ball clocked in him in the left shoulder and sent him tumbling down to the sod ground underneath the platform.

Jade sucked in a breath with a sudden a shot of fear running down her spine at the fear that he had gotten hurt. She was by his side in an instance to try to help him up, but was quickly surprised that he quickly stood up on his own and started casually laughing as he brushed himself off. She was not the only one surprised other than the rest of the group as the other teenagers wear shocked and disappointed as they were hoping to see him injured.

Beck blinked and whispered out in disbelief, "Dude…"

The tech-producer laughed out, "I'm okay, I'm okay. Trust me, I've been hit far harder than that…" He held up his wrist. "…and I have the scars to prove it."

Jade frowned at being reminded of the permanent reminders he had to carry for his love for somebody that apparently would never return his love. She had to resist the urge to take his hand and kiss the scars again in some strange need to comfort him from old injuries.

She rested a hand on his upper arm and quietly asked, "Are sure you okay?"

He flashed Jade a reassuring smile. He nodded his head as he attempted to assure her, "I'm fine. I want to try again."

She gripped his upper arm a little tighter to grab his attention and retorted with a hush tone low enough that she hoped that neither Beck nor Tori could hear her, "You don't have to. You don't have to prove anything."

He lifted a corner of his mouth then whispered, "I'm trying to make an impression with yo—with Beck, so…" He walked past her and got back on the platform, ready to start down the gauntlet again. The crowd of teenagers traded surprised expressions with one another that he would be so eager to try again. The operator looked on just as surprised as Jade guessed he may have never seen someone so eager to try again after getting hit so hard.

"Okay, one more time!" the muscular teenager shouted.

The operator pulled the switch again the balls started swinging again. Jade watched as Freddie mumbled something under his breath then started again. He quickly went through it once and grabbed a ring then quickly turned to dodge the balls.

He barely took a moment to place the ring on the opposite pole before started back down again. He a paused for the briefest of moments between the two center balls then made a mad dash to the rings. He grabbed the last two then back he went, with the Hollywood Arts students cheering him and Jade being the loudest of the group.

He dodged the final ball and made it to the end then lifted the rings up in triumph.

Jade threw her arms around the back of his neck and pulled him into a tight hug and he wrapped his arms around the small of her back. She gave him a soft congratulate peck on his cheek. The dark headed teenager couldn't see from behind her, but Beck looked on dumbfounded at the amount of affection she was showing the muscular teenager.

As she pulled away, he commented, "That was fun."

Tori shouted, "That looked insane."

"It was; you want a try?"

"I think I'll skip it this time."

Jade suppressed making a demeaning remark to Tori, mostly not to spoil the mood and the other, seeing Beck wear a guarded glance at seeing that she and Freddie had not completely pulled away.

Freddie suggested, "Then maybe we should check on Cat?"

The quartet started their way to the mechanical bull dressed as a bunny, but quickly stopped in surprise as Cat was laughing up a storm and easily riding the contraption.

The attendant that originally met them to get safety waiver signatures from the teenagers loudly complained to the songsmith standing on the other side of the 'game', "She's not supposed to be laughing."

André snapped back, "Well, what do you want me to do about it?"

Cat continued to laugh as she was thrilled with the ride.

Over the next few minutes, the redhead tried the 'Balls of Pain' and went through them with the grace of a ballerina to the shock of all then Jade handed Cat her leather jacket then climbed on the mechanical bunny with the help of Freddie as Beck was not thrilled with the idea.

The machine started up as normal, but for some strange reason, it was only going as a gentle rocking motion back and forth. Jade held the strap with her left hand and raised her right hand above her head. She sensually arched her back and swayed with the motion of the seesawing action of the mechanical contraption. A teasing smirk formed on her face as she looked over to Freddie while he softly bit his bottom lip to hold back a laugh. Beck frowned and knotted his brow while keeping his hands stuffed in his jean pockets.

She actually heard a few whistles from some of the other male patrons from the apparent show she was giving them as she rode the bunny. She guessed it was due to the bit of sensuality she put into riding along with the T-shirt pulling tight over her at times and her skirt riding up and showing a little more of her hose covering leg.

After a minute or so she finished riding and Freddie helped her down. They shared a laugh then joined the rest at two tables off to the side of the games.

The gathered group chatted for about half an hour, swapping stories of their various adventures in Seattle and at Hollywood Arts since his last visit.

Jade eventually reached over the table to take Freddie's hand.

Freddie raised an eyebrow. His curiosity laced his voice, "Where are we going?"

She stood up while still holding his hand and teased, "It's a surprise, but…"

"What?"

"How dangerous do you want to live?"

Freddie softly smirked to her and she took it as all the permission she needed to start dragging him along towards the metal stairs.

Beck asked with an annoyed tone, "Where are you two going?"

She yelled back as she dragged Freddie away by the hand, "I wanted to show him one other place then we'll meet back up at Tori's!"

* * *

About twenty minutes later or so, Jade pulled her car to a stop on the side of the road in the residential neighborhood.

"Why are we stopping here?"

"It's a surprise." She unbuckled her seat-belt and motioned her head out to her driver's side door. "Come on."

* * *

She quickly led Freddie by the hand between two houses and around through the small patch of woods. The leaves were already turning color, but hadn't fallen to produce a pretty thick canopy for the moderately thick woods. She finally stopped a minute or so later to the back of a high, wooden security fence.

She flashed him a smile then turned to a small gap in the wooden fence that had been neglected to be repaired and continued to be exposed to the elements. She slipped through the gap then look out across the yard. She realized a few moments later that she hadn't heard him follow her. She looked back and questioned, "Freddie?"

"Hey?" she heard a whisper then the next thing she knew he was dropping down next to her over the fence, causing to suck in a surprised breath.

He let out a soft laugh, "Sorry… I wasn't going to fit through there."

She grinned as she sweetly whispered in return, "It's okay."

He started looking around at that back of the house and some of the two neighboring homes. He narrowed his gaze as he recognized all three homes. "Wait a sec… this is… nooo…" He turned to her and softly laughed, "This can't be the house."

She quickly nodded. "Oh yes, the house from 'The Scissoring'." She started further walking into the yard with the safe knowledge that no one could see them at the moment due to the tall security fence blocked anyone from seeing them on either side and the tall trees of the patch of woods behind them cast a large shadow over most of the yard due to the orientation of the sun at that hour. She pointed at a particular spot in the yard and stated, "That's the exact spot where Tawny killed her second victim."

Freddie walked with her and let out a soft laugh then realized that they were in someone's backyard. "Can't we be arrested for trespassing?"

The lovely pale girl let out a chuckle.

There was a shout from behind a screen door that led to the back porch, "Hey! Who's back there! I'm going to call the cops!"

She turned to him and gave him a devious grin nearly ear to ear as she whispered, "Run, run you—"

He raised an eyebrow and interrupted her, "Cleaver, cleaver boy?"

Her brow knotted as she didn't understand his question, but she didn't have time to contemplate it as he took her hand and started running towards the back fence. She softly laughed during the short dash to the back fence then let out a louder one as he lifted her up and gave her an easy shove over it. He quickly followed by jumping up to pull himself up and over the fence. A second later he joined her over the fence. They shared a brief moment of looking to one another then he took her hand to keep running.

They finished running through the short winding 'maze' path of woods and other's backyards and stopped at the driver's side door to Jade's car. He let go of her hand and rested his hands on her hips while she instinctively rested her hands on his shoulders.

Freddie laughed out as he caught his breath, "That was fun."

"Yes it was," as she did the same with trying to catch her breath and laugh at the same time.

They looked into each other's eyes as they were scant distance between their lips. Jade's eyes flickered to his lips and there was no one around to play up an act of flirting with the handsome teenager from Seattle, but she didn't care for at that moment, she just wanted to kiss him. However, Jade's phone buzzed, indicating that she got a new text message, and pulled the pair slightly apart from one another.

The pale girl cleared her throat and looked down to break eye contact with the handsome boy to turn her attention to the phone in her pocket. She pulled it out and quickly brought up a new message to read off. She let out a sigh.

"What is it?" he asked with naked concern.

She answered as if she was swearing under her breath, "It's just Beck sending another arguing message and wondering where we are."

She ignored the annoyed expression she partially glimpsed from him as he asked with a concerned tone, "So it doesn't sound like jealousy, but just anger?"

The green streaked hair girl nodded her head and regretfully answered, "Yeah."

"Maybe that's a good thing? He's mad at me flirting with you?" He softly laughed out, "Maybe he'll swing on me?"

Jade knotted her brow as she didn't understand where he was going with his point.

He cracked a soft smile and clarified, "Fighting for your girl is an obvious sign you want her… not to the obsessive creepy level I mean in Beck's case, but to show you that he has a smidge of possessiveness with you? I'm guessing here."

She voiced with genuine concern, "I don't want him to hurt you."

"I just shrugged off a forty pound swinging ball; trust me, he's not going to hurt me. You should be more concerned about him hurting his hand on my face."

She cracked a soft smile and nodded her head. "Thanks."

He motioned his head towards her car. "Come on, let's get back so he can tell me off and swoop you off your feet." He took her hand again and gently led her around to the driver's side door.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter, especially with me moving up them visiting the Gorilla Club. I hope to get the next one out soon. Yes, I'm still assuming Freddie's built like a tank, so he wasn't going to feel the pain. What is Beck's reaction going to be when they get back to Tori's house?

I threw in a few references from other movies and television shows if you can pick them up. Thanks again for reading.


End file.
